The page was for lead generation purposes to get visitors to sign up for a course delivered by autoresponder. He decided he would like to do an A/B split test where the web site visitors would be split between pages. Half of them would load a page with the audio automatically playing, the other half would have to click a button if they wanted to hear the audio.

The test was over a two week period. The client didn't give me the exact numbers but he did tell me that there were a LOT more people signing up for the course on the page where the audio played as soon as the page loaded.

For anyone using audio on their website, this doesn't mean you should change your audio configuration. My client's results and yours may not be similar at all. You would want to test this for yourself. Then you are in a position to make an informed decision.

For those who aren't using audio on your site, and don't want to pay a monthly fee for a service that provides it, you can check out Quentin Brown's website where he offers a complete range of streaming media tools for your website.