[Steven Lyle Jordan]

There's always a careful balance you have to strike, between entertainment and annoyance. Stores go through a lot of trouble, using psychological and customer profiles to pick colors, background music, textures (and even, when they can, products!) to suit the people they want to come into their store. Sometimes they are so good at targeting their customers, that any non-customer is almost repulsed to be in that store. (It's the feeling I get whenever I walk into teens' clothing stores. Yeah, I'm old.) Other times, they can't manage to even hit their intended target.

For years I thought about background music for my site, only to be unsatisfied with anything I could use (or convinced that visitors would detest it after about 3 seconds). With the Solaris music (closing credits theme), I thought I added a nice bit of atmosphere for the site, to match its primarily SF theme. I deliberately set it low in volume, to keep it secluded to the background... for those who keep their volumes low, the music would reach them subliminally before they even identified it. At first I thought I'd hide it, but I was reminded that people like a "stop" button, and supplied one. I thought all of this would make for a more enjoyable site for all.

Anyway, that was my thinking.

Whenever you do these things, it is with the hope or expectation that your audience will appreciate it. With the web, that audience can be very particular... many people hate all website music/noise unconditionally, others hate animation as vehemently. Some will tolerate these things, depending on the selections and their application. Others love everything that's different, and they delight in finding gems like this.

This site has the usual mix of tastes, when it comes to websites... that much is clear from this thread! There's no one overriding voice on the matter, so I wouldn't consider any of the opinions expressed here as a clear mandate one way or the other.

However... after due consideration over the past few days, I have repeatedly returned to Neko's comment:

I just think it's ironic for a content author to be using someone else's content without explicit permission at their site.

Neko is right: I should not be using Fox's copywritten music without permission... even if it is not earning me any money, even if it is not doing any harm to Twentieth Century Fox's reputation or bottom line. With everything else I have tried to say, and defend, on this site, it is not just ironic... it is downright hypocritical... for me to do so.

So, I will be taking the Solaris music down this weekend. (For the moment, I don't plan to replace it with anything else. If I do: Beware...)

I hope some people enjoyed it while it was there. I also hope everyone here doesn't think too bad of me for my lapse in judgement--it wasn't the first, and I'm sure it won't be the last, either--but I'm not too petty to admit that when you're right, you're right.

Thanks for keeping me honest. Go Team!