January, 7 2011
While our posts are normally about the tremendous benefits of using professional on hold messages as a viable marketing tool for your business, we recently came across a blog post from The Journal, Humboldt county that they are offering local Humboldt county bands to submit their music to be used for the county’s on hold system for callers who wait on hold.
In this age of computerized phone systems, we all spend more time than we’d like on hold, usually listening to bad music. When the Journal moved into new offices over the summer they got a new digital phone system complete with some of the worst music on hold ever — renditions of old Elvis tunes and the like embedded in a chip. It sounded like something played on an ancient Casio or a bad electric calliope.
The Journal had the option of providing their own telephone on hold music, but they knew it had to be music in which they had rights to use (watch out for ASCAP and BMI, they’re everywhere).County Supervisor Clif Clendenen explained in an email exchange, “We used ‘Old Plank Road’ (minus vocals) from Huckleberry Flint for a few months as the County’s on hold music to have local music replace the canned crap from the phone company.” Now Karen Clower, who serves as program coordinator for the County Administrative Office, is seeking more local band contributions. Interested? Check in online at co.humboldt.ca.us, click on “Attention Local Bands and Musicians” where you’ll see:
ATTENTION LOCAL BANDS and MUSICIANS
WOULD YOU LIKE TO REACH A NEW AUDIENCE?
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Humboldt County will be featuring local bands and musicians on its phone system’s hold music.