Background Music download time & Mute Button

[KrisWmr]

Hi,
I have a website for a client that has background music. I am using mp3 files and I was wondering if there is a way to make them load faster. The whole site downloads quick but the mp3 takes a while. I also need to add a mute button. Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you.

[LeeU]

Well, the best way all around to handle it would be to not load the MP3's until the visitor asks. It's not good form to have music start playing. Consider if the visitor is at work or it's late at night and everyone else in the house is asleep. also, the person has to try to find the mute button.

[KrisWmr]

Thank you for your response. That would be fine except that the client wants music and most of the people going to this site expect music. That is why I wanted a mute button for those that don't want to listen. Thank you again for your suggestion.:)

[Eye for Video]

The only way to make any file download faster is to increase the speed of the Internet connection or to make the file smaller…period.
There are lots of compression settings for producing mp3s, choose one that seems appropriate for quality vs download time. Since the page doesn’t play the music, a browser plug-in does, you need to identify what is playing the music. Most likely it’s either Windows Media Player or a Flash player. Either way, you want to ensure that the file is being “progressively downloaded” from the hosting site. It should start playing when just a portion of the file is downloaded.
Also depending on the player plug-in, that’s how you decide how to incorporate a mute button. You need to use a player, seen by the plug in, that has a volume control or mute button.
Oh… and from a lot of personal experience, my $1,000,000. secret…
What do you mean I can’t charge for this…???? ….Dang!
Almost every song is recorded with a little cushion of silence at the beginning. And then there is the fade-in time… man.. it’s already been 4 seconds.
Here it comes… For WEB music or video, edit out all the roll-in quiet time, cut the fade in, and get right to the Action! Every Web video needs an image in it’s very first frame and every Web music file needs an audible sound at the very beginning. Edit out all the other stuff. It all adds to the wait for the action to start.
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Eye for Video
www.cidigitalmedia.com