The Story Behind The World’s Most Common On-Hold Music
The raging beats of Opus Number One
People are put on hold all of the time. In fact, it is rare that anyone calls customer service without being thrown onto a hold. Sometimes, holding on the phone can take agonizing minutes or even hours. According to a recent study, Americans will spend a ridiculous 900 million hours on hold collectively during a calendar year. That equates to 102,739 years! The average person will spend 43 days on hold during their lifetime. That is a lot of time waiting on the phone.
If you have spent any time on hold, you have likely heard the “hold music.” Nearly every business in the world uses the same hold music, a melodic mix of 1980s beats. But what is this song? And why is it used so extensively when making people wait for their customer service representative (who is currently helping other clients) to pick up the phone?
The hold music that millions of people are well acquainted with was created by two high school friends in 1989, and an unlikely career path propelled the song into modern-day infamy.
Take a moment to soak up the sultry sounds of Opus №1.
