This probably makes me a whiny codger, but I've always loathed visiting Web sites that automatically play audio or video as soon as the page loads. Maybe all I want to do is read a little bit or look at a photo gallery. Forcing an unexpected song or video on me is just irritating.

I know, I know: Surely there are more important things to worry about. But this actually comes up a lot for me at work, since I'm always visiting band sites on MySpace, where a given band's music starts playing the moment the page loads. I've gotten in the habit of immediately searching for the "off" button the moment the site comes up.

So I was pretty elated to learn this week that MySpace is disabling the auto-play function. It actually has nothing to do with annoyed visitors; it's strictly a business move. Automatically streaming a band's audio costs MySpace a ton of money. It eats up a tremendous amount of bandwidth. Royalties also have to be paid every time a song is played. Digital Music News is reporting that MySpace will save tens of millions of dollars in operating costs simply by turning the auto-play feature off.

Some users and fans might think this kills one of the most effective ways to grab a user's attention, making MySpace less dynamic. But it also eliminates some of the sonic clutter and gives bands a more realistic idea of how many people are actually playing their music.

What do you think? Is it a good move by MySpace, a bad move or of no consequence?