Kathy,
Actually, that's what I decided to do before reading your post.  I had to
apply the delayed timings and readjust them "all" (there were many).  I
couldn't even choose "after previous" for subsequent animations as they
would wait until the music ended before playing.  Most Frustrating!  Perhaps
2007 will allow music to play through, separate from animations.  There's no
shortage of folk that seem to want that feature ... or the feature to fade
music at a certain point.  Maybe we're asking too much.

Thanks for your suggestion ... it would have helped if I didn't already try
it ... so, it's definitely appreciated.
Diana

Diana,
Right now, your animations are waiting for the music to finish before they
start, likely because they are set to After Previous. Since After Previous
means "wait until the other animation is done", the other animations don't
start until the music stops.

Try changing your animations to With Previous, then use the Advanced
timeline to adjust the start points for each animation. (You can also use
With Previous, then set up a delay for each animation.)