Browse: Home / 2010 / May / Music Autoplay: On or Off? [Poll]

Music Autoplay: On or Off? [Poll]

By Ryan Van Etten on 05/11/2010

Have you ever visited a band’s website or MySpace page only to be blown out of your chair by a blaring music player? Usually the first thing I do is try to figure out how to turn it off, and, if I can’t figure that out in one nanosecond, I often exit the page and never return. Is this really the message one wants to send to their website visitors? Probably not. But maybe I’m a freak and the majority disagrees, so I ask, what do you think of autoplaying music players?

Now I like autoplay on YouTube because I know it’s coming and how to control it, but on official band sites and MySpace or Facebook pages, I think it’s too in-your-face, it looks amateur, and it’s disrespectful to your visitors. The way I see it, here are the pros and cons of autoplaying audio:

Music Autoplay: Pros and Cons

Pros

  • More people will hear the music.
  • It forces a reaction to a second sense (hearing) and thus may create a stronger memory of the visit (whether positive of negative).

Cons

  • It annoys (some) people.
  • It might get someone fired from their job if they visit your site at work.
  • It disrupts public computer labs and libraries.
  • If people panic to turn it off, they might just leave the page and not come back.
  • It increases page load time.
  • It wastes time for visitors that want it off.
  • It wastes bandwidth on visitors who have their speakers off.

Having the option to play audio may increase user engagement, but I think forcing it does the opposite—it decreases quality engagement. Besides, if you really want to engage your website visitors, then use video (in a highly visible part of the page with autoplay turned off).

Ultimately, the decision is a matter of taste. Bottom line—if you have a really good reason to turn autoplay on, then do it, but don’t do it because “everyone else is doing it” or because you think you need it to compete. Before turning autoplay on, ask yourself, do I want to send some of my potential fans into orbit? Or better yet, ask, what is my reason for turning autoplay on?

Thumbnail Photo: johnnyvulkan/flickr

Posted in , , , , | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Responses

  • http://trippywicked.blogspot.com/ Chris West

    Always off. It bugs the hell outa me on YouTube as well.

    The web covers so many bases as a source for news, music, film etc. and the introduction of tabs means that poeple open lots of different web pages at once. You've gotta give the user the choice when they reach a new page.

    I recently had a heated debate with the web designer of an artist's page that insisted on autoplaying. They're directing traffic to their site with a free download each week and then autoplaying music and it was SO annoying. Because I knew it was coming each time I had to turn my music down, go to their page and download, get away from there and then up the volume again. Bad user experience.

  • http://twitter.com/ryanve ryanve

    True that. Sometimes I have a lot of tabs open, and I can't even tell where the sound is coming from, so I just have to keep closing them until it goes away. It's even worse when you have sound coming from more than one of them, or like you said, you're already listening to music on your computer. That's a good point too—a lot of people are already probably listening to something if there at home while browsing, whether it's music, tv, etc.

  • http://twitter.com/stevenklein Steve Klein

    I have a question. How does this apply to mobile phones? If a band has their own smart phone app (iPhone/Android/Blackberry and Palm (haha not)), would you want or even expect some music to start playing when you open the app? In my opinion, Apps should start music upon opening. I'm the co-founder of a company that does iPhone Apps for bands and it would be interesting to get everyone's feedback here. Let me know what you think. –@stevenklein @getsoundaround

  • http://trippywicked.blogspot.com/ Chris West

    Ahh that's a tough one. I was gonna say no, never autoplay but I'm not sure now.

    I expect some apps to autoplay but it still bugs me. E.g. I quite often play games while on a train and I'm always listening to music. I have to turn the game sound down which is annoying but do kinda expect the game to be making noise/playing music.

    Is there any way you can code the app to check if the iPod/Android equiv. is playing?

  • http://twitter.com/ryanve ryanve

    I could see it on the music tab of the app, but personally I would still lean towards autoplay off by default. The best solution would be to give the user the option in the app settings. I know you're referring to apps for specific bands, but I'd consider the player behavior of the most popular mobile music apps—Pandora, Rhapsody, Last.fm, AOL Radio, Slacker Radio etc. Personally I wouldn't download a band's app to hear their music. I could do that through a radio app like the ones I just mentioned. I think the purpose of a band app should be to facilitate communication (band to fan, fan to fan, fan to band) and to give fans a way to upload geo-tagged mobile content (photos/video/comments) that everyone could interact with through the app.

  • http://twitter.com/ryanve ryanve

    True that. Sometimes I have a lot of tabs open, and I can't even tell where the sound is coming from, so I just have to keep closing them until it goes away. It's even worse when you have sound coming from more than one of them, or like you said, you're already listening to music on your computer. That's a good point too—a lot of people are already probably listening to something if there at home while browsing, whether it's music, tv, etc.

  • http://twitter.com/stevenklein Steve Klein

    I have a question. How does this apply to mobile phones? If a band has their own smart phone app (iPhone/Android/Blackberry and Palm (haha not)), would you want or even expect some music to start playing when you open the app? In my opinion, Apps should start music upon opening. I'm the co-founder of a company that does iPhone Apps for bands and it would be interesting to get everyone's feedback here. Let me know what you think. –@stevenklein @getsoundaround

  • http://www.trippywicked.com Chris West

    Ahh that's a tough one. I was gonna say no, never autoplay but I'm not sure now.

    I expect some apps to autoplay but it still bugs me. E.g. I quite often play games while on a train and I'm always listening to music. I have to turn the game sound down which is annoying but do kinda expect the game to be making noise/playing music.

    Is there any way you can code the app to check if the iPod/Android equiv. is playing?

  • http://twitter.com/ryanve ryanve

    I could see it on the music tab of the app, but personally I would still lean towards autoplay off by default. The best solution would be to give the user the option in the app settings. I know you're referring to apps for specific bands, but I'd consider the player behavior of the most popular mobile music apps—Pandora, Rhapsody, Last.fm, AOL Radio, Slacker Radio etc. Personally I wouldn't download a band's app to hear their music. I could do that through a radio app like the ones I just mentioned. I think the purpose of a band app should be to facilitate communication (band to fan, fan to fan, fan to band) and to give fans a way to upload geo-tagged mobile content (photos/video/comments) that everyone could interact with through the app.