The term music on hold (MOH) is related to the business practice of playing pre-recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by telephone callers who have been placed on hold. Music on hold is especially related to situations involving customer service. Many of the Music on hold systems are integrated into a businesses telephone system via an audio jack on the telephone equipment named "MOH". Music is input from compact discs or digital files such as MP3, but some older systems still use cassette tapes or reel-to-reel tape players. The source of music may be as simple as playing a local radio station through the Music on hold jack. Expressed permission of the music title and mechanical copyright holders is required beforehand otherwise it is against law. The desired musical format is provided by radio but still there is no control over the specific songs that are played. Among these some of them may be offensive to the callers. Radio stations do not have rights to provide license for their music for MOH systems. A license from the music owner is required to the radio broadcaster themselves for having the right to broadcast said music for limited and personal use. Also re-broadcasting of a radio program over a phone system can cause licensing and copyright problems for the owner of the MOH system.

Another problem is that radio stations play commercials. These commercials can be annoying to the caller. Also it is possible that a commercial of the competitor is played. This will really be counter-productive. This problem of radio commercials is eliminated by commercial CDs. Also they offer control over the selection of music and grant proper license for music on hold use unless users first obtain permission from the song title copyright owner and the mechanical copyright owner. Many has been recorded on compact discs and licensed specifically for music on hold systems. Such compact discs may contain only music, or may include periodic voice-overs with messages such as "Your call is important" or "Please stay on the line". These off-the-shelf recordings may be generic or may be specific to individual industries, but will not be customized for individual companies. Generally custom music on hold is advised to control content and control music genre and use the on hold time to sell to a captive audience. CDs can be custom-created to suit the particular needs of a business. Announcements made can be scripted to emphasize particular attributes of the business such as location, store hours, or special promotions or services. Such announcements are typically used for up-selling and cross-selling callers. Various styles of music can be played on music on hold systems. This basically depends on the type of business offering the service. Generally it is best to present music that is not be offensive to the audience and is of particular interest to the typical caller.

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Tymon Hytem has worked in the electronics feild for the past 15 years. He enjoys helping people decide on electronic gadgets from finding the right phone for your business and can help you choose the perfect