For many businesses, the decision to have your telephone system play music on hold seems to be an obvious one. Yet, when done without much thought or consideration, your hold music can be detrimental to business. Throughout this comprehensive article, we will go over all the ins and outs of hold music and which kind you should choose. 

What is On Hold Music?

On hold music, or music on hold (MOH), is simply the act of playing recorded music in place of the silence that would otherwise be heard by the customer while on hold. As of 2020, an estimated 78% of businesses with telephone systems use on hold music for their business. Source

Why Use Hold Music?

In customer service, having a comfortable and understanding environment is crucial. Being stuck in silence on a customer service line is not exactly considered to be comforting. Instead, playing music is a way to avoid creating this discomfort. In stressful and undesirable calls, having simple tunes to calm and slightly distract the caller can be a very beneficial business practice. The music during those, and various other calls, can be reason enough for why the customer chooses to stay on the line, and the data backs that up. According to several consumer studies, customers hearing music while put on hold will be on the call 75% longer than those on hold with silence. Similar data also shows that almost 30% of callers that would have hung up when greeted with silence will stay on the call when treated with some music.

What Hold Music Should I Use?

As a form of art, music can be a very subjective medium. While there might not be any clear-cut answers what music your business should use on telephone calls, there are still quite a few helpful guidelines when choosing it.
The first thing that a business should be mindful of is what kind of customer preferences your company has. All on hold music a business uses should not be too loud or annoying; still, slight variations based on customer preferences can be crucial. For instance, on hold music for a skate shop might be something of the rock or punk genre, as some on hold music for a jazz club would probably be something in the genre or subgenre of jazz. There is a reason for this switch in genre between the two businesses; each business knows to play the music that specifically caters to its unique customer base.

While a customer base can be a crucial aspect of on hold music for businesses, the type of phone line the customer will call is also quite important. For a phone line assigned just to answer some questions, picking music based primarily on your target market is perfect.

Extra: Music Genres

While using a consumer base is helpful for those simple telephone lines, it is not the same for all types of telephone lines.

For something such as customer relations or customer service phone lines, it is probably best to stray away from your regular on hold music. On customer service lines, it is most beneficial to play some mellow tunes that calm the nerves of even the strongest of complainants.

Similarly to using customer preferences, a business should also decide what type of business and brand they want to present to the public. For example, if an organization is keen on being seen as clean and professional by the community, some simple instrumentals are perfect. While, if other businesses want their brand to seem more personable and relaxed, they should probably be looking for something off the top 100. Even things that might seem basic, such as your hold music, are huge indicators to the consumer of what type of business you are running. Therefore, it is crucial to match every detail of your operation to how you would think it should be perceived by the world as.

How Can I Have Engaging Hold Music?

No matter what type of music your business chooses, it is necessary to keep things sounding fresh and new. Even with some of the most simplistic genres of music, you can easily make your music selection sound unique. A business should periodically change the grouping of songs it has been playing to achieve this task. Of course, this does not mean switching up any of the genres or other aspects of music that you picked for your business’s phone lines. All you should do is switching a batch of on hold songs with another group of songs that fits seamlessly with your business. We recommend doing this anywhere from once a month to once every six months.

Where Can I Get Hold Music For My Business? 

Contrary to popular belief, your business is not just allowed to play music over the telephone. Music licenses are needed to be able to play any copyrighted music over the telephone line. Buying licenses for all the music you want to play would cost way too much time and money. When it comes to getting affordable licensed music for your business, there is no better place than Jukeboxy. With the ultra-competitive price of $29.99 per month, you, and your business gain access to all of the premium features of Jukeboxy, such as broad music licensing with more than 45 million songs, expertly curated and custom playlists, dedicated software and hardware, and even custom audio messaging. To make the most of the business music experience, it is best to partner with Jukeboxy, which has the same dedication to detail as we know you have. Call or contact us if you need more information on the perfect on hold music or what our business offers.

Additional Benefit of Subscribing to Jukeboxy Music for Business

With a Jukeboxy subscription, you are not limited to using the service for on-hold music only. You can add an account for streaming music at your business if you have a storefront. This combined subscription model will allow you to stream the same playlists you play at your store that your customers love and associate with your brand. You will not only save thousands of dollars in music licensing fees, but you will also create brand awareness. 

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