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Should you add audio to your website? Before we even start, let's answer one simple question. Do we even need audio on our site? Let me answer this for you…unless your site is in Flash and has a high level of interactivity, the answer is probably no.
Why shouldn't you want audio on your site? This is simple really… bandwidth. It's not that you don't have bandwidth, but chances are quite a few of your customers don't (like all those AOL users), even if it's 'streaming audio'. And with all that other insane stuff your slow customers are downloading (ie - java, images, possibly some flash elements, etc.), you don't want to be adding more to their list, especially a 1+mb song.
Just in case you feel the need to add audio to your site for any particular reason, keep reading to find out how:
 Option #1: Stream your audio via Flash.
This tactic is semi-complicated and will not only require knowledge of both Flash and HTML, but also some basic knowledge of Action script as well. The advantage to this is that the user never actually downloads the file and streaming the file doesn't take nearly as much bandwidth.
Option #2: Embed your audio into Flash
Why this tactic over others? You can compress the audio more and make your load times faster. This requires no action scripting knowledge and is very simple.
Option #3: Stream the audio with Windows Media
This is a nifty feature, but requires Windows Media Services to be installed on your server. You can use another method such as Quicktime or Real Media,.
Option #4: Attach the audio
Keep in mind that the user must download the file before it plays, but it works nonetheless. You'll be able to do this easily via you HTML editor such as Dreamweaver, GoLive or FrontPage. Do some research on the net, and you'll even find you can attach audio to a site via CSS. The #1 big problem with this is bandwidth as I've been preaching. But also how the audio is played depends on the user's computer setup. If the user is setup to play all files in Windows Media Player, the player will pop open, which is very annoying.
Some things you might want to remember: Never use a WAV file or an unknown file format. They're either too big to download or won't work on everyone's computer. Stick to formats like MP3 or WMA, which are highly compressed, still sound good and work on virtually everybody's computer. Yes, by adding audio you will run into cross-browser compliancy issues, meaning your audio will not play on every browser.
Of course, if you have a high-end Flash site with animation, interaction, etc… maybe a Flash intro even, you may consider adding some audio to jazz things up. Other than that, audio simply isn't a logical solution or addition for basic e-commerce websites. |
