Adding Sound To Your Web Site - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Many webmasters like the idea of adding background music to their web sites but most shy away from doing it worrying about slow loading pages and large file sizes. There are many different ways to add background music to your site and some of them don't require large files to achieve professional results. Let's examine all the different ways to add background music to your site and rate them to find the best solution for you.

1) MIDI Files

MIDI files are very small because they actually use your sound card's built-in instruments to create the sounds. The problem is that most sound cards don't have any decent sounds to start with, plus no two sound cards sound alike and therefore the results are very unpredictable. MIDI files usually sound like they're coming from one of those cheap Casio keyboards. Using MIDI for background music is very likely to make your site seem amateurish. Want to know how to do it anyway? Just add the line to your site. (Replace xyz with the name of the MIDI file you want to use!) The Autostart command will play the file automatically when the page is loaded.

PROS; Very small file size, easy to implement

CONS: Unpredictable results, amateurish sounds

2) WAV Files

Using the WAV file format allows you to add professional sounding recordings to your site but the problem is that even if you use a low quality setting like 11k/8bit, the file sizes are still very large and it will take a long time for your music to load. And slow loading pages are the worst thing that can happen to a site. Implementing a WAV file on a web page is easy. Just add the line to your page's HTML code. There's an additional command to loop the WAV file but WAV files do not loop cleanly with the embed command.

PROS: Many Quality Levels, Easy to implement

CONS: Large File Sizes, WAV Files do not loop

3) MP3 Files

MP3 files are highly compressed and don't take that long to load but the problem is that MP3s need to bring up an external player program and which in some cases takes your visitors away from your site altogether. Also, MP3 files don't loop cleanly.

PROS: Smaller File Sizes, Good Quality Possible

CONS: Needs external player software, not loopable

4) Flash

If you own a program that can create Flash files, you will have lots of flexibility in adding sound to your site. Flash lets you import WAV as well as MP3 Files and then creates quite small files from these sounds that will load automatically on your site. You can set the quality level and therefore decide how large you want the Flash file to be. Flash also allows you to loop short pieces of sound to create 'continuous' background music files that can be quite small. But please note that only imported WAV files can be looped in Flash, MP3 files will not loop cleanly.

PROS: Great Flexibility, Small File Sizes, expecially when looping sounds

CONS: You need to buy expensive Flash software to create Flash Files

5) Pre-Made Flash Loops

The newest thing on the market are pre-built Flash Music Loops. These files are professionally recorded, loop almost indefinitely and most of these Flash Music Loops are only about 20k in size so they load almost instantly. Flash Music Loops are available at http://www.flashmusictracks.com and currently there are three different loop packages available in all kinds of music styles from classical to techno. Using these pre-built Flash files is easy. Simply upload the "xyz.swf" Flash file to your server and add a few lines from the corresponding "xyz.html" file to your web page and presto...instant professional sounding background music.

PROS: Extremely small file size, professional quality music

CONS: None

As you can see there are many different ways to add background music to your web pages and you don't have to worry about slow loading pages if you choose the right file format.

(c)2004 Alan Steward

About The Author

Article by Alan Steward, a professional recording engineer and producer who worked with many Grammy award winning groups and musicians.

(c)2004 Alan Steward - http://www.musicleads.net

Velocix Acquires Exclusive License of RawFlow Live Streaming P2P ...
MarketWatch - Jul 10, 2008
"Hybrid-P2P Streaming provides scalability to the largest global audiences for online video and audio broadcasts whilst fundamentally disrupting the ...
Velocix Acquires License of RawFlow P2P Technology and Announces P2P+ EContent (press release)
Velocix Aquires RawFlow’s P2P Streaming IPTV Watch
Velocix Announces P2P+ MarketWatch
MarketWatch - IPTV Watchall 72 news articles

Sun Valley Delivers Better Public Access with Granicus Audio Streaming
Sun Valley Online.com (press release), ID - Jul 15, 2008
By Kelly Ek The City of Sun Valley is proud to announce the launching of their new audio streaming via Granicus. Sun Valley is the first municipality in the ...

Siliconrepublic.com
Audio News for July 18
Audiophile Audition - 5 hours ago
They will then be able to watch over 10000 streaming Netflix movies and video shows on Xbox Live at no additional cost. No computer is required for ...
PlayStation Video Store to Counter Netflix on Xbox LIVE Audioholics
Xbox 360 E3: Microsoft Decides Blades Taste Like Schick GizmoRepublic
With Netflix Deal, XBox Prepares to Own Your TV Digital Media News
Marketnews.ca - WOKVall 1,021 news articles

Apple to webcast Q308 financial results conference call on July 21
MacDailyNews - Jul 17, 2008
Apple will provide live audio streaming of its Q308 conference call utilizing Apple’s industry-leading QuickTime multimedia software. The live audio webcast ...

Mobile Livecasting Faces Off: Qik vs Kyte vs Flixwagon
TechCrunch, CA - 18 hours ago
What he neglected to analyze was the audio and video quality of each service, which are obviously key components of media streaming. ...

Amazon Launches Streaming Movie Downloads
Appscout, NY - Jul 17, 2008
But Amazon has ably demonstrated that they intend to be one of the Internet's top content distributors, whether it be physical or electronic; text, audio or ...

Standard Pacific Corp. Schedules 2008 Second Quarter Results ...
MarketWatch - 3 hours ago
You may listen to the Webcast by using streaming audio or by using the following teleconference number: (888) 277-7046 (domestic) or (913) ...

Parrot DS1120 wireless hi-fi speaker system
CNET Reviews - Jul 16, 2008
The good: Compact, stylish, stereo speakers can wirelessly stream audio from Bluetooth devices; includes USB dongle for streaming from PCs; ...

DISMEMBER In Australia: Audio Interview, Performance Footage ...
Blabbermouth.net, NY - Jul 17, 2008
Listen to the interview in streaming audio at the Triple J web site: Windows Media, Real Media (NOTE: The David Blomqvist interview begins around the ...

iPlayer and YouTube more popular than ever
TechRadar.com, UK - 8 hours ago
This traffic is so popular that among PlusNet's 300000 customers, 10 per cent of all web traffic is streamed video or audio. Speaking about the statistics, ...

Wind Chimes and more...

Windchimes for great gifts!

Audio Websites -- Web Developers: Make Money Now