CMS Made Simple Forums

I have a client whose site I'm converting to CMSMS. The problem: he wants to have a continuous stream of music playing that is uninterrupted, even when the user navigates to a different page on the site. The only way I can think to achieve this is frames. But, frames are evil and yucky.

Can anyone think of some other way to achieve this?

Thanks,
reidjazz

Hello,

reidjazz wrote: But, frames are evil and yucky.

Yes. Evil. Don't use frames.

And for x% of users background music stream is evil and yucky too. Does your customer want to lose these surfers ? Does (s)he want to make its pagreank at risk too ? Tell him/her to keep 100% of surfers and a nice pagerank...

Pierre M.

Agreed...tried to tell him this was not a good idea, but thought I would research it before telling him it was a no go.

Best,
reidjazz

any site I visit that has background music for anything I instantaneously go away from.  that midi crap is stupid even if it's for only 5 seconds.

it inerrupts or interferes with  whatever radio station or music that I'm already listening to.... and is just stupid.
if your customer wants to stream music, then give the user the option to, with a button or something.

if your customer insists on it... then charge him an extra $50/hr for it.... he'll change his mind quickly.

web and music embedding is just wrong.  it interferes with the customers 'total visit experience'.  I should not get music of any sort by clicking on a link to a website, only by clicking on a link within that website that clearly explains what is going to happen.... i.e: when I click on a video in youtube I expect I'm going to get some audio with the video, but navigating to www.youtube.com does not give me any audio automatically.

Calguy,
This is my opinion also...however, my client, like me, is a musician, and his site is meant to show off his musical skills. I am not in favor of anything on a site that takes control away from the user, which this would.

reidjazz

You could call it in the template, maybe above the header, and there is a setting for page to page continuous sound, BUT have a button to shut it off please...

Responding to the opinions about usability: What about setting an introduction page, which gives the visitor option to enable/disable the music on the site...(and remembers it)

But I agree. When I visit a site, I don't want to be interrupted by music when reading, unless I decide to turn the music on and listen to it.

mark wrote: You could call it in the template, maybe above the header, and there is a setting for page to page continuous sound, BUT have a button to shut it off please...

Mark,
Could you be more specific, please? I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to.

Thank you,
reidjazz

reidjazz wrote: .however, my client, like me, is a musician, and his site is meant to show off his musical skills.

well, I am a musician, too ... but embarrassing users is the last thing I'd resort to.
Only way I can think of:  to have a button on the first page "Would you like background music while surfing our pages?" or something along the line.

Don't know how to make it play across pages, though ... I never ever use background music.

On my band's website we use the EnhancedXSPF player for playing music if the visitor wants that. Works nicely (but requires the UPLOADS module):
http://www.ikonoklast.info/die-musiker/ ... _alex.html

hth,
Alex

Hello!
I think there are 2 possibilities:
- Use of Ajax to load another side so that the whole site will not change (i have not yet seen any page that does that)
- use of Flash

For what its worth, I used a frameset for this site http://lasthawaiiancowboy.com/ just to include a flash music file.
Music doesn't start until you click the start button,
This site uses tables and lots of other bad old methods, but it was the only way I could think of to have music play across site pages.

Why dont you just use an MP3 player that opens up in its own window? Something like the WimpyMP3 player... its pretty cool, plays in its own popup window and can be used just like WinAmp.
I would take this approach with any website that wasnt a Flash site coz Flash is the only type of site that you can embed the music player and have it continue streaming the same music on each page change... 
I have a free version of Wimpy but they're charging people for it now... Great thing about though is that it reads the whole MP3 folder on your server so no need to look after changing playlist all the time etc. jsut upload all your tracks into a certain folder and it will play them all! Great little program...

Is there a way to have Wimpy always stay on top?

I moved this out of the official boards because it's not related to CMS specifically.