Easily add music to your WordPress posts with the Grooveshark plugin

Grooveshark is a cool new site that I heard about on Twitter (thanks, @TimothyFitz). While I was playing with it’s massive resources of music to listen to while I work, I found a WordPress plugin for it that allows you to add music to your posts, and a playlist to your sidebar.

I’m a strong advocate of keeping music OFF of web sites in general, but especially on business blogs. I (and most surfers who are shopping on the Internet) find music on retail sites obtrusive, and off-putting. Depending on your field, it could even damage your credibility. I’ve learned over time, though, that there are some businesses that would actually benefit from offering their visitors music on their sites. Musicians are one painfully obvious example. *smile*

Offering music as an option on your site when it provides an obvious advantage to your visitor is different, however, than the deafening forced attack of sound when one loads your site. If I can’t find a mute button that allows me to turn off the auditory terrorist, I immediately (if not sooner) close such pages.

This plugin is recommended for WP 2.5.x and higher due to DIV tag issues in the widgets with older versions. Installation was as easy as upload and activate. When you’re typing your post, you simply scroll below the new post area to find your “Add Music” options.

All in all, it’s a great plugin, and I would imagine that it’s going to be very popular with music blogs. Who knows, I may work for a musician some day, and I’ll be glad to have this lil treasure in my stash! I’ve included the song list I was listening to as I blogged, below. I’ll be using Grooveshark a lot while working in my graphics programs… it’s the best application that I never knew I needed!

Edit to add: I did notice one thing… adding the music widget (which DID work)  to my post made my “share” links disappear. So, FeedSmith Feedburner links won’t appear on the posts you use the Grooveshark music widgets on… I’m so glad they offer the link to the music as an alternative!

Songs I blog to: A collection of Alice in Chains: Song of the day

Hmm… seems that removing the widget didn’t bring my links back… Guess I’m off to debug yet MORE code tonight!

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