"Preparing Background Music For Your Website - Part 1"

Now that you have decided to enhance your website visitor experience with background music, it is important to plan (a) where the music will be played; (b) whether it will loop or play once and stop; and (c) how to edit and prepare the music for internet streaming. Because the first two concepts are a subjective decision based on your individual website design, we will focus on the last concept - how to prepare music for internet streaming, and specifically how that will apply to using looped background music.

Choose Wisely.
In our last newsletter, we discussed choosing music based on demographics - i.e. target audience, as well as selecting the style of music that best relates to the industry or business being promoted on your website.  In this article, we will discuss a few more technical points to consider.  It is assumed that whatever music track you have selected for use as a background music loop, that you have properly obtained a license to use it to promote your product or service on the internet.  While some libraries such as EZ Edit Music provide music designed specifically for internet advertising and website design without further editing necessary, many web designers choose to use other music that is not necessarily ready to implement in its current format.  

For example, if you choose to use a song that contains vocals, you need to consider (a) the length of the section you are using for the music loop and (b) the corresponding bandwidth requirements for quick streaming once the website loads into a browser, so as not to delay the playback of the music or interfere with the loading of other website elements.  If you select a shorter section for your loop, then the inclusion of vocals may make the resulting music loop sound too repetitive, as the lyrics repeat over and over.  Selecting a longer segment of the song may create loading issues for slower internet connections, so optimizing the length for your music loop, as well as whether or not to include vocals is an important decision.



Making The Cut.


For the reasons stated above, it is often more practical to choose instrumental songs rather than those including vocals for the simple reason that it is easier to create the impression of a continuous music track using a music loop created from a shorter segment of an instrumental song.  In addition, keeping the music loop under one minute in length is a good starting point for preparing audio streaming over the internet to accommodate a variety of bandwidth speeds, insuring more consistent loading of your website across platforms.

  Selecting which section of a song to use as a background music loop is a tricky proposition.  While your ear may desire to hear a particular phrase or section of the song, it may or may not be a good choice to include that as a recurring event in the loop if your priority is to create the illusion of a longer, less repetitive music track.  It is often a good idea to choose a section that is a bit more neutral musically and dynamically, so as to draw less attention to the individual musical elements that cue the listener as to when the loop is repeating.  Should you choose to include a particular musical phrase in your loop, consider that the loop may be less noticeable if you begin the track some time before that musical phrase begins.  Every song is different in this respect and presents unique challenges when choosing segments to use as loops.

In our next issue, we will continue this discussion and dig into the specific editing techniques used in preparing background music loops.

Until next time,

EZ Edit Music 
www.ezeditmusic.com

EZ Edit Music was born out of the idea that web-designers and interactive advertising agencies often do not have the time or budget to hire a commercial composer to create a specifically-tailored soundtrack for their website; but have also found it difficult to find music that not only fits the necessary mood, but is also prepared in a format that is ready for internet streaming.  All of our music tracks have been specifically composed and edited to be used as website background music soundtracks, saving you the time and cost of hiring a sound editor to prepare an existing licensed music track for internet streaming(which typically costs more than the license fee for one of our music tracks).  Our music library is constantly growing and offers a wide variety of music to suit many different industries and services.  We have also created a unique search engine to help take the guesswork out of choosing the right kind of music; plus the ability for you to audition and experiment with re-mixes for any song before you license a music track from us.  We invite you to explore what we have to offer by visiting us at: http://www.ezeditmusic.com.