How to choose the best on-hold music for your business?

What are the benefits of telephone hold music?

What if instead of being an uncomfortable time, holding the line became a pleasant experience reinforced by music? This is the stake and the promise of a rigorously selected melody.

Music doesn't just fill a void: it has the power to enrich every second that your interlocutor spends online with your company, from the welcoming message to the answering machine, including waiting. As you may have experienced in your daily life, music punctuates your moments of relaxation or your bursts of motivation, its presence during telephone breaks supports the dynamism and orientation that you wish to reflect.

It has the ability to soften waiting time by reducing anxiety. It creates an atmosphere of trust and prevents waiting from becoming a source of frustration. It acts like a sound cushion which makes this involuntary pause less burdensome, even pleasant. Studies confirm this. The wait feels shorter for callers when they are greeted by impactful music rather than silence or repetitive ringing. The background sound therefore greatly reduces the risk of the caller hanging up.

The music in your phone messages also acts as an introduction to your business identity. This background sound immerses your interlocutors in your brand universe and strengthens your image with sound, an immensely powerful vector. This is what we call sonic branding!

6 tips to choose the best on-hold music

Here are some criteria to consider when choosing original on-hold music adapted to your context, and which accompanies your telephone communications.

Tip #1: Music that matches the company’s identity

The music you choose should be an accurate reflection of your brand. It aligns with your values as well as your marketing and commercial objectives. This consistency ensures a stronger brand identity, consistent with the image you want to project.

Tip #2: Original music that sets you apart

Stand out in the ears of your customers, prospects and colleagues. The music that accompanies your telephone communications is original and personalized to give a unique touch to your communication strategy. This uniqueness makes a lasting impression and creates an immediate association in the listener’s mind, between the melody and your brand.

Tip #3: Music tailored to your target

The melody played during your welcome messages resonates with the profile of your customers. Think about the demographics and cultural characteristics of your customers — their age, cultural and social preferences. A relevant selection will allow you to build a stronger and more emotional bond with those who contact you.

Tip #4: Atmosphere and message

The music selected should create the appropriate ambiance for your service. Whether it's a calming tone for a customer service hotline or a reassuring melody for a medical department, every note plays a role in how your company's message is perceived and received. The music must therefore be in line with the tone of your communication.

Tip #5: Music that isn't set in stone

Like your ads, your music also evolves throughout the year. Vary the pleasures according to seasonality to renew the customer experience. This seasonal update maintains the interest and freshness of the telephone reception, for example by adapting the melodies to festive periods at the end of the year or to events which punctuate your activity.

Tip #6: Avoid «elevator music» heard again and again

This music that we have all heard a thousand times, generally associated with soporific elevator ambiances, leaves an impression of boredom and a slightly corny atmosphere, in the bad sense of the word. Impersonal, they reduce the interest and commitment of your customers from the first moments of the call.

With compositions that stand out from the ordinary, you demonstrate your attention to detail and show your customers that every aspect of their experience is carefully considered.

What musical style should you choose?

This choice is far from trivial, because it subtly but powerfully communicates the essence of your brand. What genre would best reflect the atmosphere you aim to project? Pop-rock to evoke dynamism and modernity, jazz for a touch of sophistication, or perhaps lounge for a feeling of calm and accessibility?

Each sector of activity can find the echo of its values and its image in a musical genre. Thus, a company that operates in a traditional and serious field may favor classic genres, which evoke stability and confidence. On the other hand, if you are looking to reflect a more dynamic and innovative image, more pop or rock styles could be relevant choices. They bring a more engaging energy and modernity for a young clientele or those oriented towards new technologies.

Listen to our sound example which illustrates the different musical styles👇

Original, commercial or royalty-free music?

When choosing the music that defines your customers' waiting experience, you're faced with a key decision: what type of music to choose? Each of these options has specific advantages which influence the atmosphere you wish to create and the resulting administrative management.

Music specially created for your company

One of the best options is to create a unique musical composition, specially made for your business. Original music, which fits your values and your business, and which becomes your sound identity.

This is a golden opportunity to make an impact and strengthen your brand identity.

Rights management is simplified since you are the sponsor of the work and use the music license for a given duration. Unique music remains a very good investment, especially since it can be used on many communication channels.

If you would like music for your telephone reception, contact us! Our studio imagines and creates the sounds that will adorn your announcements and that your callers will recognize from the first notes.

Royalty-free music

Royalty-free music is a simplified solution for copyright management. It allows you to avoid the royalty fees usually associated with collective rights management organizations and producers. This therefore reduces costs and simplifies administrative procedures linked to the use of music in a professional setting.

However, the choices may be less varied compared to commercial music.

Commercial music

So-called commercial music provides access to a broader repertoire and works of very diverse genres.

Its use implies respect for the rights of authors and of each actor in the musical production chain: authors, composers, performers, producers who are fairly remunerated for their work by the independent collecting organizations.

Don't forget to test your music

We also advise you to test various musical orientations on your telephone reception to evaluate their effect on the customer experience. In this context, customer feedback and satisfaction surveys will be valuable tools to refine your musical selection and guarantee that the chosen background music is best suited to your brand and your audience.

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