Jumping bars in lower left corner - music playback?

[Cue-Ball]

There are bars in the lower left corner of the screen that look like an audio visualization (think Winamp's dancing bars). Is this part of the music playback? If so, why would these be there and active if I have music turned off? I would rather stop the music completely, not just mute it, since it's undoubtedly using some CPU cycles.

[Huru-aito]

They show the ping of each player on the server :)

[tristancliffe]

The current 'live' ping, and the average ping from the last 10 seconds (2 bars per player). The highlighted ones are you. I think it's in the order of the connections list.

[Cue-Ball]

Ah, okay. That makes sense. No wonder I hadn't seen them in single player. :)

Thanks for straightening me out, fellas.