Finally, take into account the reduction in quality that goes hand in hand with hold music. The audio quality is—at best—24 times worse than that from a CD. Yes, we just said CD. The public telephone network wasn’t built with HD music in mind. Thankfully for OnSIP customers, we provide HD radio for VoIP music on hold. That said, your company might have top of the line audio quality, but if clients call in from an old landline or cell, they might hear some distortion.
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.

“The human brain reacts differently to different types of music, eliciting very specific emotional, physical, and behavioral responses, almost as if music were a map, communicating emotions to a brain even better than words. As in conversation, different inputs stimulate nearly all of the brain.”
Whether it’s music, marketing messages, or a combination of both, the recording should be long enough so it doesn’t loop back to where they started when they were first put on hold. If you don’t typically have long wait times, this should be no problem. If calls get stacked up sometimes, you’ll want to make sure that the recording is at least as long as your typical wait time on a busy day.