How to Get Hold Music for Your Business? Top 5 Providers & Tips

Hold music helps reduce caller frustration, prevents hang-ups, and creates a professional impression, keeping callers engaged while they wait. It also lets you add brief messages, updates, or promotions without interrupting the call experience.

• Reduces Caller Frustration: By listening to engaging hold music, callers can stay patient and relaxed during wait times. It makes the wait feel shorter, reduces irritation, and enhances overall customer satisfaction.
• Prevents Hang-ups: Well-chosen business hold music prevents callers from feeling bored or frustrated while waiting. It creates a pleasant audio experience that captures attention and lowers the risk of call hang-ups or abandoned calls.
• Creates a Professional Image: Using high-quality hold music demonstrates professionalism and respect for callers. It shows that the company values their time, creating a positive impression.
• Supports Marketing and Announcements: You can combine hold music with short announcements or messages to share updates, services, or promotions. It helps turn hold time into an opportunity to inform and engage callers.

To get hold music for your business, choose the right provider, select music that fits your brand, and set it up properly.

1. Choose a Licensed Music-on-Hold Provider: Start by selecting the music-on-hold providers that best fit your business. You can choose a dedicated hold music provider or a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider with built-in hold music features.
2. Pick the Right Music: Decide the type of hold music experience you want for your callers. Choose between simple music and a combination of music and announcements. Select the tone that aligns with your brand, engages callers, and creates a professional impression.
3. Set Up and Ensure Compatibility: Once you’ve chosen a provider and type of music, set it up and add it to your phone system as your official hold music.
4. Refresh and Update Regularly: Update your hold music periodically to keep it relevant, engaging, and aligned with your brand.

The best on-hold music service providers include Calilio, MelodyLoops, Spectrio, EasyOnHold, and Snap Recordings. Each offers distinct features designed to enhance the caller experience and keep customers engaged.

Calilio is a cloud-based VoIP business phone system that includes a built-in music on hold feature. It allows businesses to play professional background music or custom audio while callers are on hold.

Businesses can choose music from Calilio’s library or upload their own branded audio, including greetings, updates, or promotional messages. Short announcements can also be added with the music to share important information.

In addition, it allows you to pair the music on hold feature with other call management tools such as call queues, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), and call forwarding to create a smooth and professional caller experience.

Melody Loops offers professional on-hold music that works with phone systems and IVR systems in call centers. It provides a wide range of tracks, including corporate, ambient, instrumental, and motivational music. You can search music by keywords or melody, explore playlists, or use the AI music playlist generator to find the perfect track quickly.

Each track comes with a royalty-free license and a money-back guarantee if the files don’t work with the system.

MelodyLoops also allows you to add custom messages or announcements to the hold music. Additionally, it provides a music conversion tool. You can provide an MP3 or a WAV file and transform them to integrate into your phone system.

EasyOnHold is a well-known professional on-hold music and messaging solution provider. It offers a large library of instrumental hold music, licensed hit songs (Cover Tunes), and streaming music from popular artists, giving you plenty of options to match your brand tone.

You can choose music using a ready-made playlist suggested by audio specialists or use a self-service tool to pick tracks of your own. You can also add scripted voice messages between songs and music. Furthermore, it also provides professional human voice recordings and AI-generated voiceovers, supporting over 68 languages and accents.

Spectrio provides professional on-hold messaging and music solutions for businesses. You can set up any licensed music to create a polished caller experience. Businesses can choose music from a library of professional voice artists to find a voice that best represents their brand.

Spectrio also supports custom music. It offers a wide range of music styles, in which you can add custom voice messages for announcements, business hours, or promotions. It also allows you to integrate a professional voice and music on the auto attendant or IVR systems.

Snap Recordings is an on-hold music service that offers businesses the opportunity to turn every inbound call into an opportunity to engage callers. Businesses can choose from thousands of licensed music tracks in various genres, from classical to contemporary hits. You can also combine them with custom voice messages.

The platform includes an easy drag-and-drop on-hold message mixer that lets teams create, update, and manage messages without technical effort. You can simply select the music and add announcements, and let the mixer handle the rest. Furthermore, Snap Recordings also offers to choose hold music with human voice-overs or AI-generated voices in 50+ languages and accents, making it suitable for a global audience.

To maximize the impact of hold music, use only licensed music, keep the volume at a comfortable level, avoid repetitive or distracting tracks, and integrate informative or promotional messages to engage callers.

1. Use Licensed Music Only: Always use music that is licensed for on-hold or commercial telephone use. Avoid radio songs or streaming platforms, as they are not legally permitted for use in business phone systems and may lead to copyright issues.
2. Maintain a Professional Tone: Use music that matches your brand and feels pleasant for most callers, typically calm, neutral instrumental music. Avoid too loud, fast, dramatic, or songs with heavy lyrics because they can feel unprofessional or distracting.
3. Avoid Short or Repetitive Loops: Avoid using very short recordings that restart every 10–15 seconds, because callers quickly notice repetition and feel the wait is longer. Use a track that’s around 30–90 seconds and make sure it loops smoothly with clean transitions, so it doesn’t end suddenly.
4. Limit Wait Time: Keep wait times as short as possible. If callers are placed on hold for too long, even the best music won’t prevent frustration, so combine call handling with clear audio for a positive experience.
5. Avoid Silence on Hold: Silence makes callers think the call has been dropped or no one is available to assist them. Using hold music lets callers know that the line is active and they’re still in the queue, which helps reduce hang-ups and uncertainty.
6. Update Hold Music Regularly: Refresh or change your hold music or messages whenever there are service changes, policy changes, or new offers. If callers hear outdated information, it can mislead them, create unnecessary questions, and reduce trust in your business. 

Hold music plays an essential role in enhancing the caller experience and reflecting your business’s professionalism. Choosing the right hold music helps create a positive first impression, reduces caller frustration, reinforces your brand identity, and keeps callers engaged while they wait.

For businesses looking for reliable hold music for daily operations, Calilio offers a practical option. Calilio’s business phone system includes a Music on Hold feature that transforms wait time into a positive experience. Businesses can upload branded audio or select from Calilio’s default music library. You can also add voice recordings to play custom messages alongside music to update your callers about service updates, business hours, or special hours.