Music on hold (MOH) is the business practice of playing recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by telephone callers who have been placed on hold. It is especially common in situations involving customer service.
Music on hold is sometimes referred to as phone on hold, message on hold, on hold messaging, hold music, etc.
Development
Music on hold was created by Alfred Levy, an inventor, factory owner, and entrepreneur. In 1962, Levy discovered a problem with the phone lines at his factory. He discovered that a loose wire was touching a metal girder on the building. This made the building a giant receiver so that the audio broadcast signal from a radio station next door would transmit through the loose wire and could be heard when calls were put on hold. Levy patented his work in 1966. While other advancements have come to change and enhance the technology, it was this initial patent creation that began the evolution for today's music on hold.
Equipment and formats
Most MOH systems are integrated into a telephone system designed for businesses via an audio jack on the telephone equipment labeled "MOH". There are also some units with built-in message on hold capabilities and units designed for small businesses without an extensive phone system.
Music and messages on hold are played using either physical or virtual media.
Today, equipment that supports physical media usually plays CDs. Some older systems may still use cassette tapes (sometimes employing endless-loops), or reel-to-reel tape players. In each case, the unit loads the media into a digital memory chip to prevent premature wearing of the mechanical parts.
Equipment that supports virtual media generally plays MP3 files. Several types of units play these files. USB Flash Drive units allow an MP3 file to be received electronically, downloaded to a flash drive and connected to the player. Ethernet based remote load units connect via the network to a remote IP address. Phone line based remote load systems allow for a connection via an analog telephone line and dialing the number belonging to the unit. For VoIP phone systems, MP3s are loaded without any equipment.
Newer technology allows MP3 files to be downloaded automatically from the internet so that messages (or interesting content in the form of news and weather, amongst many) can be changed daily. The new "online on hold" technology makes the older technology redundant since it requires no additional hardware. All these systems allow analog-to-digital audio storage and playback.
As of 2011 allow productions to be downloaded via the Internet or played through a USB flash drive. This allows for larger files and higher quality formats. Grace Digital manufactures internet radio devices that play streaming content (see Recent Trends, below).
Consumer perceptions
A number of studies have been conducted, which highlight consumer perceptions of music on hold, reinforcing its use by businesses to improve standards of call handling.
A survey of more than 2,000 UK consumers commissioned by audio branding specialist PHMG (company) revealed 70% of consumers are put on hold for more than 50% of their calls. When put on hold, 73% of callers want to hear something other than beeps or silence and a further 76% preferred to hear something other than music.
A CNN survey found that 70 percent of callers in the United States who hold the line in silence hang up within 60 seconds. Meanwhile, research by North American Telecom found callers hearing music on hold will stay on the line 30 seconds longer than callers experiencing silence.
Source of music
Radio
The musical source may be as simple as playing a local radio station through the MOH jack. This is unlawful without the express permission of the music title and mechanical copyright holders.
- Although radio stations may provide the desired musical format, there is no control over the specific songs that are played, some of which may be offensive to the callers, or depending on the music played, sound harsh in monaural sound. This kind of system is also vulnerable to interference.
- Radio stations typically do not license their music for MOH systems. In the United States, the radio broadcaster has no legal right to provide such a license as they, themselves, obtain a usage license from the music title owner for the right to broadcast said music for limited and personal use. As mentioned below, re-broadcasting of a radio program over a phone system may likely cause licensing and copyright problems for the owner of the MOH system.
- Radio stations will play commercials, which may be offensive or at least annoying to the caller. Furthermore, it is possible that a competitor's commercial may be played, which would be counter-productive.
- See Legal aspects.
Owners of radio stations will usually air their broadcast signal as music on hold, using their main program signal, if there are several. Examples include RÚV from Iceland using Rás 1 as the on-hold music.
Off-the-shelf commercial CDs
Commercial CDs eliminate the problems encountered with radio commercials, and they offer control over the selection of music; they do not, however, grant proper license for MOH use unless users first obtain permission from the song title copyright owner (when the song is not in the "public domain") and the mechanical copyright owner. (See "Radio," above, for more details.)
Stock MOH CDs (with or without voice-overs)
CDs are available that have been specifically recorded and licensed for MOH systems. These may contain only music, or may include periodic voice-overs with messages such as "Your call is important" or "Please stay on the line". Such off-the-shelf recordings may be generic or may be specific to individual industries, but will not be customized for individual companies.
Custom-designed MOH
In general, custom music on hold is advised to:
- Control content
- Control music genre
- Use the on hold time to sell to a captive audience
- Through a reputable on hold company be fully licensed and legal for on hold playback
- Reduce hang-ups and make the business look more professional
- Control length of programming based on average caller holdtime
CDs (or other MOH formats, such as MP3 files) can be custom-created to suit the particular needs of a business. The announcements can be scripted to emphasize particular attributes of the business such as location, store hours, or special promotions or services. These are typically used for up-selling and cross-selling callers. Companies can either record the messages themselves, or hire a music on hold production company.
Online on hold
A program loaded onto an existing computer and connected to the phone system can allow automatic content updates interspersed with company information.
Streaming MOH
Streaming MOH refers to a live music on hold stream (URL-based delivery) which can also include custom content. Streams in http .mp3 format include those provided by easyonhold.com. Streaming MOH can also refer to a streaming media server, as with Cisco Unified Call Manager, in which case RTP format is utilized.
Free on-hold programs
Programs available to non-profit organizations at no cost. Very few companies offer absolutely free programs. The programs are available in generic and custom formats, and are delivered at no cost to the requesting organization.
Styles of music
The style of music played by MOH systems depends largely on the type of business offering the service. It is generally best to present music that will not be offensive to the audience, but that would also be of particular interest to the typical caller. A western apparel store may choose to play country music. A Christian book store may choose to play popular Christian music. A university may choose to play classical music. An athletic ticket office may choose to play the team or school's fight song. Light classics, smooth jazz, and beautiful music are common choices, as is fully synthesized melodic music.
The most common MOH is "Opus Number One", which is on "65 million Cisco phone sets worldwide as the default hold music," according to a This American Life podcast (number 516). The composer, Tim Carleton, recorded the song in 1989 on a four-track tape recorder with Darrick Deel. When Deel, who works at Cisco, told Carleton their song could be the default music on hold, Carleton also approved.
Recent trends
With the application of newer equipment, music on hold devices can now interact with the caller. No additional programs are required on the platform, as all the logic is done with the MoH device. This can include services such as 'polling on hold', rating your customer service officer anonymously, etc.
The trend toward hosted IP telephony for business phone systems is demanding changes in music on hold message technology. In November, 2013, EasyOnHold.com introduced custom messages on hold streams for use with Asterisk and OnSIP phone systems.
Legal aspects
Copyright law
In the US, and other countries where copyright laws are practiced, authors are granted copyright protection on their musical compositions. Such copyright protection has existed since just after the turn of the 20th century and most music written prior to 1900-1910 - from impressionism back to baroque and antiquity are said to be "in the public domain." Use of any said music prior to the creation of these copyright laws may be presumed to be free for use by all - although individual titles may have been later copyrighted through a change in the composition or arrangement. The use of copyrighted music is not for free use in the public domain.
All music written after this period, which is copyrighted under multiple acts of congress, are owned by the author(s) or their assignees. The use of this music is protected and controlled in order that the owner may derive usage income. Specific to telephonic MOH (music-on-hold), the US laws currently protect the copyright owners from unlawful, unpermitted use of their music titles in over-the-phone broadcast. Any person or business wishing to use current, popular, post 1900-1910, copyrighted music for MOH purposes may only lawfully do so by obtaining permission from the owner. Currently, performance rights societies such as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC will sell blanket permission to use music titles in their catalog for MOH purposesâ€"for an express annual fee - calculated by size and frequency of usage. Failure to obtain this paid permission is a violation of US copyright laws.
This same copyright protection is also true in the rebroadcast of any radio program. As mentioned earlier, the broadcaster has been assigned a narrow and specific usage license to air copyrighted song titles. This does not include permission to any person or business to re-broadcast that program on telephonic MOH. The broadcaster may not promote such unlawful use and is not an owner who has any lawful right to grant MOH usage permission. They do not hold the ownership of the title and have no right to license use in any way. Those who plug radio broadcast into their telephone MOH without first obtaining paid permission through the owner's agents (ASCAP, BMI or SESAC) may be in violation of copyright law and may be prosecuted under existing federal laws.
Mechanical copyright
Unbeknownst to most people, a second copyright exists when it comes to licensing use for telephonic MOH. A piece of music, as mentioned above, is copyrighted and may be licensed for use as a music title and is understood to be a combination of melody, harmony and, where applicable, lyrics. However, neither radio listeners nor MOH listeners could hear this music unless it was recorded - providing a delivery medium whereby the "music" becomes a "performance." As mentioned elsewhere, in countries such as the US, where said copyright laws are enforced, nearly every recording of a song title holds its own "mechanical copyright."
For most of the 20th century, music was recorded in studios, produced by record company executives, producers, arrangers and engineers who were hired to deliver the artist's finished recordings for mastering and duplication - for sale on the varied media: 78, 45 and 33 RPM vinyl, reel-to-reel, 8-track tape, cassette and compact disc. To protect their investment, the record companies obtain a mechanical copyright in order to protect and control the recording with which they derive usage and sales income. (For those still uncertain of the difference between "song title" and "mechanical" copyrights, consider the Capitol Records lawsuit for copyright infringement against Nike some 20 years ago. Nike legally obtained permission to use the Beatles song title "Revolution" from the title's owner, Michael Jackson. They used the Capitol Records owned recording of the Beatles' performance, but failed to obtain and pay for permission and use. Capitol Records sued and prevailed because Nike ONLY had a license to use the title and did not have a license to use the mechanical recording.)
Therefore, persons or businesses wishing to play music that falls "in the public domain" are still legally required to obtain permission to use the mechanical recording of this music, from the mechanical copyright holder. And where the use is of copyrighted music, the same applies. In all cases, before a song title may be broadcast on a telephone MOH, said use must be approved and licensed from BOTH the "song title" copyright owner (if it is NOT in public domain) and the "mechanical" copyright owner.
Enforcement
It is generally known within the on-hold industry that some performance rights societies, with regional offices and staff, both monitor and prosecute persons and businesses that infringe on the copyright of title holders in their libraries. ASCAP and BMI are both aggressive about this, from time to time. It is not known whether any record companies are currently or actively monitoring and prosecuting violators of their mechanical license.
See also
Genres
- Background music
- Elevator music
Notable companies
As of 2010, the music-on-hold/message-on-hold business was a 100+ million dollar industry with more than 300 different vendors to choose from producing custom content amounting to less than $1M in sales per company - including various manufacturers of specific-duty, message-on-hold devices.
- On Hold Company
- Muzak Corporation
- Grace Digital
- PH Media Group
- Nel-Tech Labs
- Sound Marketing
- IOH Info On Hold