Adding Music to Website: How and Why

March 29th, 2021
How to add music on your website

You probably know the situation: You’re surfing the web, you open a new window and… there it is, unexpected music blaring from the speakers into your face. You react naturally – you quickly close the window instead of searching for the mute button. Are there any better ways to handle music on a website? There sure are, and we’re going to share some tips with you.

Let’s get right to the point – there are only a few cases when music has a place on a website. It can be useful, for example, when you’re a music band and the site is for promoting your music. In most other cases, you risk your visitors leaving the website immediately once the music starts. Visitors could be browsing the internet:

  • At work – how would their boss or colleagues react to death metal or pop coming out of their speakers?
  • In a public place – A sudden blast of sound from their laptop or other device while in a café or library would be very embarrassing for them.
  • At night – everybody is finally asleep. Nobody wants to wake up the rest of the family and see their grumpy faces.
Source: Paul Sableman/Flickr

Source: Paul Sableman/Flickr

Music on your website might not only bother your visitors, it can also harm you and your website.

  • Longer loading times – when you have music on your website, it can take longer for your site to load properly. Neither your visitors nor Google like this and your website can get penalized.
  • Repeating music – you probably want visitors to stay at your website for a long time. A short audio loop of 30 seconds will bore or irritate them quickly and they will leave.
  • Music taste – are you willing to risk losing your visitors just because your favorite songs are not to everyone’s taste?

That’s a summary of what not to do.

So, what should you do when you need music on your website?

Whether you are a multimedia artist, music band website administrator or a creator of relaxing videos. We have tips on how to handle a website with music in the background:

Jamendo

Jamendo is a website for downloading free music. It’s easy to navigate and you can filter music by songs or performers.

The website Unsignedbandweb.com is dedicated to bands and performers who don’t want to cooperate with recording companies. Independent artists create profiles here to communicate with their fans.

This is how Unsigned Band Web looks

Stock music

Just as there is a stock photography industry, there is a similar one for sound. There are stock audio websites where you can find songs, tunes, melodies, jingles and other sound files. The most popular ones are AudioJungle by Envato, BenSound, MusicBakery and FreePlayMusic. There is also a stock music database by YouTube called YouTube Studio.

There are also other internet services where you can find music or audio files. You can share them to your website through a link or upload a file to your website directly. You can try Chirbit.com or Soundcloud.com for example. On Soundcloud, you can even find some theme songs to download.

There was a way to upload an audio file in the original Webnode editor. However, there is no need to change the format of the file in our current version. You can upload any file and the editor will know how to work with it and will offer it to your visitors for download.

If you want to add music in the background, the best way is to download one of the online music players and embed it as html code. Soundcloud is one of the most popular ones and they also offer an embedded player for your website which offers the option to play tracks automatically.

Wondering what a website builder is and how to use it? We have a detailed guide for you.

Whether you want to create your own website with or without music, you now know how to do it. Have fun creating your website, and we hope your visitors enjoy the music you choose for them.