Music on Hold is part of an everyday experience for thousands of New Zealanders. It is the music callers hear while waiting to speak with a business, government agency or other organisation.
It may sit quietly in the background, but the choice of music can have a meaningful impact.
For callers, it can make waiting feel more welcoming and considered. For businesses, it can become another expression of identity and values. For artists, it can provide another place for their work to be heard, licensed and connected with potential recurring revenue.
Creating more sustainable opportunities for artists
A sustainable career in music is rarely built from one song, one performance or one major opportunity. It is usually created through many different uses of an artist’s work, each contributing to the wider career they are trying to build.
Music on Hold has the potential to provide recurring commercial use. When an artist’s music is selected by a business, it may be heard repeatedly over an extended period and licensed accordingly.
No individual placement is guaranteed to transform an artist’s career. However, opportunities across Music on Hold, background music, public spaces and other commercial environments can collectively contribute to a more dependable foundation for creators.
Additional licensing revenue can help artists spend more time doing what they are meant to be doing: writing, recording, performing and creating more music.
The value of a placement is therefore not limited to the song being heard by callers. It can help fund recording, production, equipment, promotion and the time required to develop the artist’s next project.
More places for New Zealand music to be heard
New Zealand has an extraordinary community of independent artists, yet much of their music remains absent from everyday commercial environments.
Music on Hold gives businesses and organisations another opportunity to change that.
Instead of relying solely on generic hold music or familiar international repertoire, businesses can introduce callers to music created here in Aotearoa. This creates another point of discovery and another way for local artists to become part of the soundtrack of daily life.
One placement may appear modest in isolation. Repeated across businesses, telephone lines and thousands of customer interactions, these placements can create meaningful exposure and commercial value.
A small change can make a significant difference
Waiting on the phone can be frustrating. Thoughtfully selected music can make that experience feel more welcoming, distinctive and connected to the organisation callers are dealing with.
By including appropriately licensed music from artists represented by Heart Music Group, a business can improve its caller experience while making a practical contribution to New Zealand’s creative economy.
A change to Music on Hold can:
- create potential recurring licensing revenue for participating artists and rights holders;
- help independent artists continue writing and recording new music;
- increase the presence of New Zealand music in everyday life;
- give callers a more distinctive and locally connected experience; and
- support greater choice and competition in the commercial music-licensing market.
Supporting an artist through Music on Hold does not only support the music being heard on the telephone. It contributes to the wider career behind it.
Every appropriately licensed placement can help an artist move closer to a career in which music is sustainable, rather than something they must continually fund through unrelated work.
Supporting greater choice in music licensing
When businesses source and license participating music through Heart Music Group, they are also supporting a more diverse and competitive licensing market.
HMG directly represents participating artists and rights holders. This allows us to create a clearer connection between commercial music use, the licensing revenue collected and the creators whose work generates that value.
Giving businesses access to another legitimate licensing pathway encourages choice, transparency and innovation. It also creates another way for independent artists to participate in the commercial use of music.
Turning waiting time into something meaningful
Music on Hold will always serve a practical purpose, but it can also do more.
It can introduce callers to New Zealand music. It can make a routine customer interaction feel more considered. It can create recurring commercial uses for artists and contribute to the work required to build sustainable creative careers.
For a business, changing its Music on Hold may be a relatively simple decision.
For an artist, that decision can become part of what allows them to keep creating.