Most companies know that having their telephone system play music for customers when they are on hold results in said customers staying on hold for minutes longer than with no music. What they don’t know is that it is copyright infringement to play music on hold without a license.
The Copyright Act gives the copyright owner (of a sound recording) the exclusive right to publicly perform the piece…and broadcasting over one’s telephone system is a public performance. Ergo…
I’m not sure whether ASCAP and BMI hire private investigators to randomly call phone numbers looking for infringers, but they do make it easy (if you don’t mind writing a fat check) to license "music on hold." See ASCAP and BMI.
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