Building a Web Site For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 9. Web Sights and Sounds

In This Chapter

Finding video and music to use on your site Avoiding legal hassles Understanding file formats Making files smaller Adding audio and video to your site

Web pages don’t just sit there any more. They’ve come a long way since the early stages of just displaying text on your computer screen. New forms of multimedia experiences crop up all the time. Television and radio stations, for example, have broadcast on the Web for a long time, but most of them target only individual users; few of these broadcasters have realized the importance of allying with Webmasters to get more exposure for their signals. I dug up a few sites for you that are Web-based themselves, existing only on the Web instead of being traditional broadcast or cable stations, and they do understand how much you, the Webmaster, mean to them.

I also point you to plenty of sources for sound files that you can use on your Web site. Of course, as with any innovation, there’s a certain amount of debate about the use of sound on Web pages. Aside from the carping of die-hard traditionalists who just plain insist that you shouldn’t use it, there are some serious considerations. Sound doesn’t necessarily go with every site. If you decide to use it, you need to match the mood of the music with the page’s theme. The right song can add a new dimension; the wrong one can sound ridiculous — and maybe even make your site a bit of a joke.

If you use sound, make sure that you give your ...