Don’t you just love embedded music on websites?

Saturday, May 5th, 2007

Fool Me Once...

I’m not talking about music links here. I’m talking about music that starts playing as soon as you reach a webpage. It’s not just the unfathomably popular MySpace littered with aural pollution, but official sites for films, and chart bands as well.

Even one of my oft-visited favourites, the official BBC Doctor Who site, carries sound switched on by default every week during a series run, promoting the next upcoming episode. I have no choice but to have my ears assaulted and the music I’m listening to in iTunes mixed up with whatever low-bitrate soundtrack is streaming out of my speakers until I find the ’sound off’ link hidden somewhere on the page I’ve just loaded.

Do you have a pet peeve site that enforces sound onto you whenever you go near it? Do you know of even just one site where music-by-default actually works and enhances the experience of visiting it? No?

Grr. Why, in the names of all the gods, why?

Currently listening to: Everything But the Girl – Adapt or Die: Ten Years of Remixes – Five Fathoms [Ben Watt Edit]


categories: music
Now everyone gets MORE out of the comments section below...

Hovering your mouse over a commentator's name will reveal how many times they've posted comments to The Spicy Cauldron, where to find their most recent comments on here, and a short extract of their own latest blog entry (if they have a blog). So by leaving feedback and opinions here, you promote your own blog as well. How cool is that? Try 'very'...

6 comments on “Don’t you just love embedded music on websites?”

4Avatars v0.3.1 Sue Says:
May 5th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

I can’t stand it either, and when using my older laptop it is an instant blue screen of death sentence … :( On my commercial blog I joined a blogroll called BAM which is made up of people protesting just that, and the list grows everyday!

4Avatars v0.3.1 Howard Says:
May 5th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

I hate that as well. In fact, my work’s website does that and it’s annoying as hell, but the boss loves it so I can’t turn it off.

4Avatars v0.3.1 Kitty Says:
May 5th, 2007 at 10:18 pm

I hate it. Browsing MySpace I just hit the mute button on my laptop, it makes it easier than finding the ‘off’ button for the music.

4Avatars v0.3.1 MsDemmie Says:
May 6th, 2007 at 6:21 pm

I have my speakers off for this very reason.

4Avatars v0.3.1 Spicy Cauldron Says:
May 9th, 2007 at 12:43 am

See, I’m a complete iTunes addict, always play music of my choice at the computer, so I don’t have that option, sadly. Really, browsers should have the means to switch off any and all audio tracks they come across set to autoplay. A plugin for Firefox would be nice… Anyone out there? >;-) x

4Avatars v0.3.1 bLaugh » Archive » Fool Me Once… Says:
May 28th, 2007 at 2:25 am

[...] Don’t you just love embedded music on websites? » The Spicy Cauldron » Blog Archiv…   May 5th, 2007 at 2:48 [...]

 

have your say

You must be logged in to post a comment. Registration is quick and easy. Just click here to get yourself a free account.


The entire length of my right arm, including my hand, has been getting more and more painful ever since the biopsy, with each passing day. That can't be right, can it? I've never known a wound take as long as this to heal, either. There are no signs of infection, though. I can only think the morphea has, for want of a better word, been 'angered' by the invasive procedure.

- more...