{"id":5241,"date":"2026-02-10T15:09:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/easyonhold.com\/blog\/?p=5241"},"modified":"2026-02-10T15:16:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:16:36","slug":"death-of-hold-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/easyonhold.com\/blog\/death-of-hold-music\/","title":{"rendered":"The Death of Hold Music: Big News or Big Hype?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a review of a recent video interview with Nuri Gocay, Director of Platform Architecture for Zendesk Contact Center, by Rob Wilkinson, Senior Technology Evangelist for CX Today. The title of the video is \u201cThe Death of Hold Music: Why Waiting on the Line Is Over.\u201d That got our attention. Waiting is over? This is either big news or big hype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are We To Believe Hold Music Has Died Without Us Knowing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Think about the last several voice-channel touchpoints you\u2019ve had in the past week. Calls to your insurance company, healthcare provider, bank, or government agency likely included some time spent waiting for an agent or another human. Waiting is still very much alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We at Easy On Hold\u00ae are experiencing an increase in requests from enterprise brands for professionally designed waiting experiences. Hold music isn\u2019t dying; it\u2019s evolving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About The Video Interview<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Gocay, a polished presenter, begins with the premise that hold music is dead and gone, apparently made obsolete by a new ZenDesk AI offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want to be clear about our concern with Mr. Gocay\u2019s argument: it is unfair, inaccurate, and dismissive of an entire industry. For his proposition to work, \u201chold music\u201d must be thought of as anything a caller hears while waiting. That framing conflates hold time<\/em> and hold music<\/em>, creating a semantic blur that confuses the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More concerning is how the argument relies more on rhetorical soundbites (e.g., \u201chold time doesn\u2019t just delay service, it contaminates it\u201d) than operational evidence. Ultimately, hold music\u2014and, by extension, our industry\u2014are positioned as villains, memes, and punchlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Easy On Hold\u00ae rethought hold music long before it became fashionable to declare it obsolete, developing technologies specifically to overcome the unintended consequences platform architecture has imposed on the voice channel over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hold Music Was Engineered To Fail (Until We Stepped In)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Complaints about hold music ring hollow when they come from the very engineers and technologists who helped degrade it. Mr. Gocay\u2019s background is in platform architecture, the discipline that repeatedly stripped flexibility, branding control, and functional choice out of the on-hold experience. Marketing and CX teams were bypassed. Standards were ignored. As a result, familiar irritants like endlessly looping<\/a> stock tracks and the infamous \u201c12-second saxophone loop\u201d Gocay jokes about became defaults not by customer demand but by architectural convenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Condemning hold music after engineering its decline is a bit like an arsonist promising to put out the fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music, of course, is not the problem. Hold music is just an obvious and easy scapegoat in a story about how customer experience has failed to evolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Customer Experience Crisis Isn\u2019t About Music<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most caller frustration<\/a> is driven by callers being forced to repeat account information, getting bounced between agents, or dropped calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, research firm Forrester declared that \u201cCustomer Experience Quality in the U.S. Falls to an All-Time Low\u201d <\/em>(Customer Experience Quality In The US Falls To An All-Time Low<\/a>)  based on an analysis of CX Index scores for 223 brands across 13 industries. One year later, Forrester reported CX quality hit another <\/em>all-time low, noting that \u201cfor the second year in a row, 25% of brands\u2019 customer experience rankings declined.\u201d<\/em> This regression is not driven by music; it is a systemic failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional analysis from CustomerThink<\/a> points to more fundamental causes: lack of executive involvement and accountability, weak customer experience governance, poor customer feedback management, and entrenched organizational silos. These are leadership and design problems, not audio problems. (citation: 10 Customer Experience Challenges to Overcome<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Real Topic: The Possibility of Zero-Wait Experiences<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Roughly twelve minutes into the discussion, the topic turns to \u201czero-wait\u201d experiences. The real topic of the interview was buried beneath a critique of hold music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI tools now available to contact centers can meaningfully assist callers by routing more intelligently, preserving context, resolving routine issues, and reducing the need for human intervention without degrading the experience. It\u2019s a fascinating topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact center AI is well-suited to answering straightforward caller questions, such as \u201cCan I bring my dog on the flight?\u201d<\/em>, a classic example heard in the interview. A well-implemented AI voice agent can resolve common FAQs, schedule appointments, and complete routine transactions without requiring human intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the caller\u2019s need is satisfied within that interaction, the result is a genuine zero-wait experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes \u201cZero Wait\u201d Is Not An Option<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Gocay puts it plainly: \u201cThe trick is being honest about what zero-wait means.\u201d He acknowledges that there are situations where zero-wait is simply not possible, and names scenarios involving ambiguity, emotion, safety, business-to-business interactions, and billing disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Gocay explains that in moments that require human judgment, the role of the contact center is not to rush the caller through automation. It is to preserve trust, context, and clarity while connecting them to the right human resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When AI Becomes A Substitute For Hold Music<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When a caller\u2019s mind is made up to speak with a representative, they will not be deterred. In those moments, AI tools are often experienced as gatekeepers or stalling tactics. Worse, they can feel like nothing more than a modern stand-in for hold music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNET\u2019s Bridget Carey<\/strong><\/a> recently described today\u2019s support calls as \u201can odyssey of finding knowledgeable humans,\u201d where tech barriers keep piling up. Her co-host Scott Stein captured the dynamic perfectly: \u201cSometimes the only way to get to a human is to be nice to the robots blocking your path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the fall of 2025,  Life Hacker<\/a> made a similar point about contact centers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompanies are increasingly hiding their customer service representatives behind phone menus and AI-driven tools, and even if you make contact, the experience is often less than ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 Claims Made In The Interview: True or False?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Claim: Hold music is obsolete.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SOMEWHAT TRUE<\/strong>
Generic stock tracks and default platform audio should be obsolete. But modern on-hold experiences are evolving. Easy On Hold\u00ae works with marketing teams to create curated, brand-aligned audio. In 2025, we onboarded more enterprise brands than ever across healthcare, automotive, equipment, travel, and government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim: Hold music is ubiquitous.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SOMEWHAT TRUE<\/strong>
Hold music is common, but it is also a design choice. Companies decide whether hold time is treated as a brand moment or left as an IT afterthought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim: Hold music is a \u201c12-second saxophone loop.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

FALSE<\/strong>
The stereotype exists, but it is not universal. Many organizations deliver high-quality, brand-appropriate music. Many Easy On Hold\u00ae customers have received public praise for their on-hold experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim: Hold music gives the impression that the organization you’re calling has “vintage plumbing (outdated plumbing).”<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SOMEWHAT TRUE<\/strong>
Many cloud platforms still force short audio files that restart with every hold event. Ironically, this \u201cretro\u201d experience was introduced by platform architects who design VoIP and cloud systems, not legacy telephony. Some modern platforms, including Microsoft Teams Phone, address this by supporting live-streaming audio, developed with Easy On Hold\u00ae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim: Hold music was never designed for the customer’s benefit.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

FALSE
<\/strong>Hold music was designed to reassure callers that their calls had not been dropped, an obvious and clear customer benefit. The real failure came later, when platforms limited the hold experience on cloud platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim: Hold music covers a capacity gap.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

TRUE
<\/strong>Wait time varies based on agent availability, and capacity gaps are real. AI can reduce hold time for simple needs, but it still fails in complex and decision-heavy scenarios. Waiting will remain part of many customer interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim:<\/strong> Hold music is not a feature of great service.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

FALSE
<\/strong>Customers consistently report that a well-designed on-hold experience positively shapes how they feel before speaking with an agent. This is not accidental. Many organizations use hold time to set expectations, reduce uncertainty, and prepare callers for a productive interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim:<\/strong> Customers wanting hold time removed is a “shift that is going on now.”<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

FALSE<\/strong>
People have always disliked waiting. The use of AI in call centers hasn\u2019t sparked a rebellion against hold music, nor has it eliminated the need for short waits when human help is required. Apple\u2019s new \u201cCall Assist\/Hold Assist\u201d feature is celebrated in the interview as groundbreaking. It\u2019s not. Google\u2019s Pixel 3 offered similar functionality years earlier. So in that sense, Apple is simply catching up \u2014 as Android Authority joked, \u201cCongrats, Apple, you just caught up to the Pixel 3<\/a> .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim: A poor wait experience places a burden on the call agent to “repair customer trust.”<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

TRUE.<\/strong>
A poor waiting experience creates friction that agents must overcome. A well-designed on-hold experience reduces that friction by informing callers, setting expectations, and improving their mood before an agent ever answers. Both the agent and the brand benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where We Go From Here<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe end of hold music\u201d is a familiar, click-driven headline that typically resurfaces whenever a new AI platform enters the market. We find such framing unfortunate and dismissive of an industry that is actively improving customer interactions. Easy On Hold\u00ae has done the hard work of working around platform limitations, modernizing the on-hold experience, and proving that this category is not dying. It is evolving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re marketing a new contact center AI tool, here\u2019s our ask:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Stop declaring the hold industry dead.<\/strong> It isn\u2019t. It\u2019s growing and evolving through technical innovation, better content, and better design. Platforms like Microsoft still work with us directly to improve the hold queue experience.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Stop using \u201chold music\u201d as a catch-all term.<\/strong> Not every waiting experience is hold music. What we build is a curated caller experience, a fundamentally different category.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Let AI stand on its own merits.<\/strong> AI tools have a compelling story to tell without positioning themselves as \u201chold music killers.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Be honest about what AI can and cannot do.<\/strong> Even in the CX Today interview, Mr. Gocay acknowledged that zero-wait is not always possible.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    We embrace AI in the contact center. In many ways, we share the same mission. Both of our industries exist to help organizations retain more business and serve customers better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This is a review of a recent CX Today video interview with Nuri Gocay, Director of Platform Architecture for Zendesk Contact Center, who argues that hold music is dead. 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