When designing your own website - or one for a client, the choice of including audio elements often arises during the building of the website. Being that this is an article about audio, it seems strange to suggest that many websites do not need or would be better off without music or sound effects; but in fact, many are better left simple, while others are meant to be more engaging. In making these decisions, one needs to consider not only whether to add music or sound effects, but also the type, production quality, and placement to achieve the best visitor experience. If done well, adding sound elements can greatly enhance the emotional connection made with your product or service.
Engage Your Senses.
In general, when deciding on appropriate music for a website or ad campaign, it's a good idea to consider (a) demographics - i.e. your target audience, and related tastes in music; (b) the initial emotional reaction you want from the visitor; and (c) the desired mood for a visitor to experience while browsing your website. So, for example, if you were promoting an exciting event, you might use something bold for your landing page. Or as another example, if you wanted to create a more intriguing entrance, you could start with sound effects and slowly fade in some music. The common thread here is that you are striving for an emotional connection with the visitor in order to make your product or service more appealing; and to make the overall experience more entertaining and memorable.
In general, when deciding on appropriate music for a website or ad campaign, it's a good idea to consider (a) demographics - i.e. your target audience, and related tastes in music; (b) the initial emotional reaction you want from the visitor; and (c) the desired mood for a visitor to experience while browsing your website. So, for example, if you were promoting an exciting event, you might use something bold for your landing page. Or as another example, if you wanted to create a more intriguing entrance, you could start with sound effects and slowly fade in some music. The common thread here is that you are striving for an emotional connection with the visitor in order to make your product or service more appealing; and to make the overall experience more entertaining and memorable.
Everyone has different musical tastes, and there is no correct or incorrect choice for website background music. However, there are choices that produce better results when it comes to keeping visitors at your website longer, producing conversions or sales, and making it a website worth talking about to other potential visitors. For some businesses, that might involve choosing music that can be used more subtly and carefully placed throughout the website; while for others the music might be a more central focus. So when making that emotional connection with the visitor is important, it's a good idea to consider the entire sensory experience in designing your website.
Now that you've got some quality music to add to your website or online ad campaign, here are a few things to consider:
- What initial impression do I want to make when the visitor sees the home-page or landing/splash-page?
- Overall mood or feeling desired for your website. This will of course, determine your placement - i.e. specific pages or continuously looping throughout your website.
- Relative volume level - as it relates to an 'average' computer-speaker or headphone listening environment.
- When does it start? Does it loop? What kind of audio controls do I need?
- Should the music vary or change as I visit different pages of the website?
Your choices about these factors will greatly influence the average visitor experience and impression of your product or service; so just as a great film soundtrack can make the movie a better experience, the right choices for audio can do the same for a website or online ad campaign.
In our next issue, we will cover some professional audio techniques for better results when preparing audio for websites.
Until next time,
EZ Edit Music
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 music 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/.
