Are you a photography business owner looking for music to place on your photography business website?  Many photography website templates (especially flash ones) allow you to upload mp3 files that will play on your website pages.  This may sound like a great idea, especially if you like music and have some great songs that you would like to upload.  However, here are a few considerations to keep in mind before you upload…

Musical Tastes

Not everyone has the same musical taste as you.  In fact, it is highly likely that they don’t .  Consider all the types of music out there today from Top 40 to Hip Hop, to Country.  Now what do you like?  What are the chances that your website visitors will like the same thing?  It is highly unlikely.  The more likely response is that they will not appreciate the music near as much as you do.

Quiet is Bliss

When you are using the internet, what else are you often doing? For many people browsing the internet takes place in an office with other workers, at home with the TV or radio playing or maybe while you are talking with someone else or on the phone.  So if suddenly you are in one of these situations and a loud song starts emanating from your speakers it may surprise you, your co-workers, your friends, etc.  You will probably reach for the speaker mute button as soon as you can.  You might even close the website to quell the sudden noise. This is a natural reflex but it surely is not what you want to encourage from your website visitors.

Royalty Issues

Another item to consider is the legality of placing music on your website.  Most of the time this is actually outside your rights based on the license granted when you purchased the music.  If you just ripped the music from a CD, then in essence you are replaying the music for an audience which is an illegal use of the music.  In order to get around this, you must either purchase a license which enables you to play the music on your website or you must upload only royalty free music.  A google search can take you to many places where you can find royalty free music, but it will not include the popular tunes today and will likely consist mostly of instrumental tracks.  So while you will at least be legal, you probably won’t like the selection of music available.

The upside of music

Okay so we just went over some of the issues with using music on your photography website. So what is the upside? Well if your visitor likes the music, they may enjoy listening while they browse your picture gallery.  Will this make them more likely to book a session?  I have no proof that it will.  It may, but I wouldn’t bet my business on it.

The Bottom Line

So as you can probably guess, my recommendation is to avoid putting music on your photography business website.  There is just too much of a downside in lost or annoyed visitors to justify the few positive reactions that you may receive.