It’s a question that comes up every now and then – “Can I have music on my web site?”

The answer is not so much can you, but should you. And the answer is perhaps, if you really want to – with several important caveats. Firstly and most importantly, the music should never play automatically. Nothing is more annoying for a web site visitor than clicking on a link and being bombarded with noise that they weren’t expecting – and if your visitor is at work, it could even be embarrassing or get them in trouble. 

Secondly, you need to make sure you have permissions to use the music. Just because you bought a CD or a digital file doesn’t mean you are allowed to broadcast it. There are rights managed and royalty-free music collections that you can license for web sites, or you can get permission from the copyright holder.

In general, not a lot of business web sites have music, and this is probably because most web site visitors aren’t really interested in hearing your favourite track. Unless there’s a particular point to including it, you’re probably better off spending the time and effort on something else.