What is music on hold?

What it is, and why not just silence

Music on hold (MOH) is the sound the PBX plays to a caller whenever they are waiting: in a queue until an agent is free, when they've been transferred to another extension, or when the agent pressed "Hold" to check something.

Why does it matter? Because on the phone, silence sounds like a disconnection. A caller who hears ten seconds of silence starts asking "Hello?", and a few seconds later hangs up and dials again, starting the queue from the beginning. Music tells them without words: "You're still connected, you're being taken care of."

According to the common story, the idea was born by accident, when a wire of a phone system touched the metal of a neighboring building that was broadcasting radio, and the people on hold suddenly heard music. Whether or not that's exactly what happened, the idea caught on, and today almost every PBX plays something while a caller waits.

Where the caller hears music

• In the queue: the main place. Here the wait can last minutes, so this is where it matters most to mix in announcements (see Waiting queue).
• On a deliberate hold: the agent presses the hold key on the phone to check something or to consult.
• During a transfer: in a supervised transfer, while the agent talks to the person receiving the call (see Call transfer).
• In a conference room: in many systems, whoever enters before the host hears music until the host joins.

In many systems, you can set different music for each of these places. A donations queue can play quiet music with an announcement about the campaign, and a technical support queue can play music with a pointer to the website.

Music with announcements: the hold works for you

Someone waiting in a queue is an audience that is already listening. It's a shame to spend this time on a tune alone. Between the tracks you can mix in short announcements:

• Reassurance: "All our agents are busy, we'll answer you shortly."
• Position in the queue: "You are third in line." This is the information that reassures most, because it shows progress.
• An alternative: "You can also send us a message," or an offer of a callback.
• Useful information: business hours, directions, a registration deadline.
• An update: a sale, an upcoming event, a change in hours.

A rule of thumb: an announcement about every minute, and no more than 10 to 15 seconds each. Announcements that are too frequent are annoying, and someone who waits five minutes doesn't want to hear the same sale ten times. If possible, rotate between two or three announcements.

Real-life examples

A nonprofit on a fundraising evening. Hundreds of callers wait in the large queue. Between tracks of quiet music, a short announcement plays about the purpose of the campaign and that every donation is matched tonight, if that's true. The person waiting hears why they are donating, and doesn't just wait.

A Bnei Brak business before the holidays. Most callers ask about deliveries. The announcement in the queue says: "Orders received by Thursday will arrive before the holiday." Some of the people waiting get their answer and hang up satisfied, and the queue gets shorter.

A service center. The announcement in the queue points to the website for checking order status, and offers to press 1 for a callback. Someone in a hurry doesn't stay on the line, and those who stay know they have an alternative.

A small office. There is almost no queue, but there are transfers. One pleasant piece of music with no announcements is enough, so that during the few seconds of the transfer the caller doesn't hear silence.

Silence, ringing or music: a comparison

Repeated ringing suits a caller who waits a few seconds until someone answers, as in a hunt group. But two minutes of ringing makes the caller think no one is there. When the wait is long, music and announcements are the right choice.

Which music to choose

Quiet and flowing. Music over the phone is heavily compressed, and tracks with drums, heavy bass or sharp changes in volume sound choppy and harsh. A single instrument (piano, violin, guitar) or a simple melody sounds much better.

Suited to the audience. A yeshiva or nonprofit will usually choose a niggun (a wordless melody), and a business might choose neutral music. The test: will your average caller feel comfortable?

Doesn't restart all the time. If the track is very short and repeats, the person waiting will notice. It's better to have several tracks in a row, or one long track.

Copyright. Playing music to callers is a public performance, and in most cases you may not use a well-known song without a license. There is royalty-free music made for exactly this, and some people record a melody themselves. If you're not sure, it's worth checking before you upload.

Common mistakes

• A file that's too loud: the caller pulls the handset away from their ear. It's worth listening on a real phone before turning it on.
• An announcement that cuts off the music in the middle of a musical phrase: you can edit the files so the transitions are clean.
• Live radio: other people's ads, news, and a song that doesn't suit the organization. Files you chose are better.
• A false announcement: "Your call will be answered in a moment" when the actual wait is long. People remember that.
• Music that hasn't been replaced in years: regular customers know it by heart, and that isn't necessarily good.

Full example: building the hold experience for a service center

A service center at a small insurance company, four agents, an average wait of two minutes in the morning. The team decided to rebuild the hold experience, and this is what came out:

1. The music: three quiet, royalty-free piano tracks, each two to three minutes long. About eight minutes in total before the first track repeats.
2. Three announcements, each up to 12 seconds: A: "All agents are busy, we'll answer you in order." B: "You can also check the status of a claim on the website, at any hour." C: "For a callback when an agent is free, press 1."
3. Schedule: announcement A when entering the queue. The queue position announcement every 45 seconds. Announcements B and C alternating, every minute. After five minutes, announcement C only, every minute.
4. Testing: two team members called from a cell phone and waited a full six minutes, with a clock, noting what they heard and when.
5. After two weeks: they checked the call log for how many callers hung up before being answered, compared with the two weeks before.

What they learned: the website announcement took off some of the simple calls, and the callback offer after two minutes turned hang-ups into orderly requests. A queue position announcement every half minute felt crowded, and they lengthened it to 45 seconds. Everything was set on the queue itself, without touching the rest of the PBX.

How to prepare the files

Basic editing like this can be done in a free audio editing program in half an hour. If you don't have anyone who can do it, send us the files as they are, and we'll adjust them.

What comes from where: the queue, the music and the announcements

It's worth understanding who is "responsible" for each sound, because when something doesn't sound right, that's where you look for the setting:

• The music belongs to the queue. Each queue chooses its own list, so the donations queue and the service queue can sound different.
• The entry announcement ("All agents are busy") is a queue announcement, played once on entry.
• The position announcement is generated by the system, and only its frequency is set in the queue settings.
• The periodic announcements (a sale, the website, a callback) are files mixed into the cycle, at an interval you set.
• The hold during a transfer doesn't belong to the queue at all: it's the organization's general music, which is why you hear something different there.

This leads to a common mistake: people replace the "general" music and wonder why the queue still plays the old one, because the queue was given a list of its own. When you update, go over all the queues, not just the general setting.

Copyright: what's worth knowing

This section is general knowledge and not legal advice, but it saves surprises. In most countries, playing music to callers counts as a public performance, like music in a store or a hall. A well-known song, even if you bought the album or pay for a streaming service, doesn't include the right to play it to callers. A personal license covers private listening only.

• Royalty-free music: libraries that sell a one-time license for business use, including phone hold. Keep the receipt and the license terms.
• A melody you recorded yourselves: if the tune is ancient or folk and the performance is yours, there is usually no problem. A well-known melody by a living composer requires their approval.
• Commissioning a composer: a short piece written for the organization, with an agreement that transfers the usage rights to you. A common solution at nonprofits and institutions that want a sound of their own.
• Live radio: problematic for both rights and content, and so not recommended.

When in doubt, check with someone who knows the law in your area. The cost of a royalty-free track is very low compared with the hassle of a warning letter.

When callers complain: symptom, cause, fix

In most cases the fix is in the file itself and not in the PBX. So the first step is always to download the file, listen to it with headphones, and only then check settings.