When you begin to consider what callers on hold should hear while they wait, be sure to focus on your callers and their needs. Think about: Why are they calling? What would keep them interested and even inspired? Remember, on hold messages shouldn’t be a hard sell, but rather a soft sell or conversation with people who have reached out to you, and are in an excellent position to make buying decisions based on what they hear while on hold.
Unfortunately, it gets worse. Due to general sloppiness when it comes to setting the volume level for music on hold, a form of distortion known as “clipping” can appear, and regularly does if you’re willing to believe personal anecdotal evidence. If you want to know about the science behind clipping, then Wikipedia will tell you everything you need to know, but for those of us who have things to get on with, we can get by just knowing that when something is played too loud down a phone line, the sound starts to distort and sound really horrible.

"This whole 'Humor On Hold™' thing is pretty freaking stellar." - Rachel McGrath / On Hold Messaging Association's MARCE Awards Judge
Corporate cost-cutting and new technology have resulted in the advent of automated systems that can make the on-hold experience even more frustrating. It can feel near-impossible to get a human on the phone these days, which a national survey conducted by Consumer Reports found to be Americans' second-greatest annoyance, after hidden fees but beating out inaccurate weather reports and dog poop. Green observes that often people call as a last resort, because something on the website wasn't clear, perhaps, and they really need an answer quickly. So callers are captive listeners, a state often associated with the gridlock of waiting, whether in line at a Starbucks, in a dentist's chair, or in the proverbial elevator making its slow way up.