Music on a web page?

In general I dislike background music on a website. It slows down load time, it surprises users who have their speakers turned on, and its annoying. It is similar to flashing text on a web page.

The only time it makes sense to me is for a site about music or for a band. Then it can be expected.

The better solution is to have a player on you web page like @aslum suggested that way people can choose to play your music or not.

Never. Well maybe if it's a myspace page. Though in that case it's more expected then suitable. Or if it's a website for a band, you could have music that the user could click to play, but it shouldn't automatically start, and there should be a way to stop it as well. Or if it's a game, you can have music, but again there should be a way to stop the music.

Almost no one likes having their speakers hijacked, especially if they are already listening to music (pretty common) having new music play over top is just plain annoying.

I think the answer goes for any type of media. If the user did not ask it to happen, it will be viewed as an intrusion by many people.

Even in the case of a band site, I would embed players the user could access, but never autoplay.