Hold Music

What Is Hold Music?

Hold music is the audio a caller hears while waiting on a telephone line, chosen or composed to reassure callers that the connection is still live and to make waiting feel shorter. In sonic branding it is treated as a brand touchpoint, carrying the same musical identity as advertising, retail and product sound.

Hold Music in Practice

Hold music has enormous dwell time yet is often the last audio a brand considers. The famous case is Opus No. 1, a track Tim Carleton and Darryl Ferguson recorded in a garage in 1989. Ferguson later worked at Cisco and the piece became the default hold music on Cisco phone systems, making it one of the most heard recordings on earth, played to millions of callers every day. That accident of history proves the point: whatever plays while customers wait becomes part of the brand, deliberate or not. A considered approach draws hold music from the brand’s sonic DNA, respects the loudness and codec limits of telephony, and refreshes regularly so frequent callers do not tire of it.

Famous Example

Opus No. 1, the default Cisco hold track heard by millions of callers daily.