11 Recordings of Terrible Hold Music

They're all torture. #8 is pure masochism.

#7 made me want to stick things smaller than my elbow into my ear, like toothpicks. Definitely the worst, in my opinion.

#3 was the worst, although the static noise in #1 was pretty awful as well.

#11 sounds like the theme song for some 80s sitcom like Growing Pains or something.

If only they played all of Vivaldi's Four Seasons...that wouldn't have been too bad. Just the horrible "on-hold" elbow you inevitably get, right?

Oh, and there is nothing I hate more than being told "Your call is important to us, please wait on the line . . ." They've done studies showing if you don't play that every 90-120 seconds, people are more likely to disconnect. But hearing it every 15 seconds on a 5 minute hold, I very quickly got very angry!

#3 and 7 annoyed me most.

Wow that is way cool dude.

Lou

HATE #4. it's used by one of the conferencing companies we use, so i get to hear it while waiting for the always late conference starter.

i actually call it spooky music, because i keep imagining it playing in the background of a so bad it's bad horror movie staring paris hilton.

Here's a hint for why #4 is so popular:

It's the default hold music for a Cisco CallManager system. It's name is "SampleAudioSource". If you don't add any other music to the system, it will get used any time you put a call on hold. They do ship a royalty-free music CD, but most of the music on it is as bad or worse, so most everyone I know just leaves it as the default.

I listened to these solely to see if my most hated was on the list - #6 is shared by two companies that I thankfully only have to call once or twice a year, but the fact that neither has changed it since I've been using their services makes it extra annoying.

#3 is the music to freeconferencecall.com's hold music. I know this because I have listened to it countless times while waiting for people to join my calls. I've written lyrics to it if you're interested.

I actually like number 1. It reminds me of listening to shortwave radio.

I think number six is Progressive's hold music.

I have to know what #6 is as well, as I've heard it before...

They should have put down Dell's tech support hold music, which is equally bad as any of these.

#10 makes me feel pretty special. Like a mountain breeze perhaps. #3 is so terrible it would cause me to hang up — which may be the action they're trying to provoke!

I'm pretty sure #6 is Verizon's hold music, both for their landline and cellular services, if I recall correctly. It's been awhile since I've heard it since I moved and no longer use their services, so I might be wrong. Either way, I remember wanting to jump out of a highrise window whenever I was on hold with them.

I laughed out loud at a couple in the last half of the list.

I would add to this torture (possible future article alert) some bad waiting room office 'muzak' I have had to endure. At least official Muzak (TM) is often full songs run through sappy string arrangements, or better.

My Doctors wife runs a bit wholistic in her choices for office decor and music which she chooses, and there is this odd new age cross of Tin Drum Jimmy Buffet ala John Tesh minimalism that is quite maddening, which the scented candles she prefers (what about allergy patients?) only makes worse.

#3 is the worst *BY FAR*.

#8 and #11 also *really* suck.

Its between 3 and 10. The bad loop timing will surely drive you insane, but the style of music in 10 will have you looking for pink and purple tights and the big hair spray.

#6 is used by Xerox's service department.

http://marquardts.org/wordpress/?p=13

We've since changed it.

You hafta listen to at least the 50 second point to appreciate the lunacy of this.

Bonus points for anyone who can survive to 1:30 without going stark raving bonkers, and serious awards to anyone getting through the inexplicability of 2:41 to 2:50. And that's just the beginning.

I'm sure the Georia Dept. of Revenue has employed one of these. Please hold your expected wait time is 40 minutes.

I don't care to check if it's still there, but my vote is for the tech support hold music for Western Digital. It sounded like they looped a 20 second music snippet, and not a good one.

Haha I hate to say this but I actually really like #6

Next time, try re-dialing the number but change the last digit to the next number. So, if the last digit is 5, dial 6. Large companies have blocks of phone numbers, sometimes successive.
If you don't want to hear the movie theater's recording, dial up (or down) a digit and the manager might answer. And then you can ask him to check lost & found for your cell phone.
Works with US Gov't. offices and lots of other places.
Sometimes they say, how did you get this number? Oops, did I misdial?! Oh while I have you on the phone...

We use #1 at my work. I think it's the default for the phone system honestly. We also, for at least 3 years straight, have kept our average answer time solidly under 30 seconds.

Oh boy, oh boy! All of them are terrible pieces of "music"...delete'em for ever....

Number 3 gets my vote! Pretty sure it caused me to have a seizure, much like the "Mary Hart Effect" on TV. They all bring back horrible memories. Considering recording them on my answering machine for the benefit of telemarketers. It would be fun to hook these tunes up to one's doorbell with an outdoor speaker...driving away those annoying people selling products and religion.

I'm playing all at the same time. It's much better.

#7 will make people the most psychotic, I think.

Oh jesus. #7 is so awful. #8 is bad too, but god, #7 is soo terrible.

HATE #s 3 and 7. They make me go a little crazy in only a few seconds. Why would a company do that to its customers!?!

number 7
horrible horrible horrible

# 10 is way worse than FreeConferenceCall.com at #2. To the person who has written thier own lyrics...would love to hear those! If you want to hear #2 hold music to dance check you FreeConferenceCall.com on YouTube for some dancing entertainment.

Some of these are just terrible. Why dont they just use music from http://routenote.com as hold music??

#11 is awesome and epic! I would love to hear that -- I would get so pumped.

I work at the front desk in a hospital lab, so I have to call doctors and clinics all day long. You know when you call your doctor and have to navigate that convoluted phone tree from hell only to get put on hold for 20 minutes? Welcome to my nightmare. Many of them use #4, and I have actually grown to like it because 1) it's WAAAY better than some of the crap I am subjected to ("Thinking about liposuction? We're here to help!") and 2) it gives me a brief respite from the dreadful, repetitive, "Fergalicious" Top 40 radio station I am forced to listen to all day long. How sad is that bit of Pavlovian conditioning??

#6
correct me if i'm wrong, that's the hold music used by MICROSOFT.
It only wins because you will spend at least TWO HOURS deling with Tech Support and a good amount of time is listening to this awful s**t!

"Melody Phone" was invented by Jean Georges A Mourra. My father was the first person who invented music while waiting on the phone. It's a music box that you attach to the back of the phone. My father invented it because everytime he was waiting on line for someone, they would hang up the telephone, and he got tired of waiting and then they would hang up on him. If anyone says they invented it, they are wrong. My father is still alive and he is 81 years old.