Music On Hold: Music that plays through the telephone as a person waits on hold. Although often cited as one of the negative aspects of the customer experience (“a necessary evil”), music on hold has been an indispensible component of nearly every companies’ customer telephone expereince for decades. Indeed, a number of studies have shown that music on hold helps minimize the perception of time on the part of the caller, making an unavoidable inconvenience more tolerable. Companies that take the extra step of designing custom on-hold music programs that reflect their brand identity can even make their customers’ on-hold experience more enjoyable and, with the integration of relevant messages, more informative and valuable.