Petition Calls For Companies To Use Aussie Musicians When They Put You On Hold

Whenever you call a company, there's a high chance you'll have to be put on hold for anywhere between a couple of seconds to several hours.

What you're usually greeted with on the other end is painfully boring music that is devoid of any emotion, lyrics or enjoyable beat.

There might be a few businesses that have selected unproblematic tunes from a few decades ago but it's really nothing to vibe to while you wait.

But, a petition has started gathering pace to get these companies to change their hold music to help promote Aussie artists.

Publicist and talent manager Karen Eck started the online campaign and has already racked up thousands signatures.

She wrote: "Like many artists, the Australian music industry has been on its knees during the pandemic.

"One smart solution is for Australian corporations to give local musicians a platform to showcase their original songs to their customers waiting on the phone for an operator to answer.

"Currently, many companies use licence-free music on a repetitive loop designed to make customers hang up or incur a persistent earworm!

"If you have to wait for hours to speak to a company representative wouldn't you rather be entertained while supporting Australian musicians doing it tough?"

She got the idea while waiting on hold with an Aussie company for more than seven hours.

Ms Eck thought Aussies deserved better and believes it could be an awesome opportunity to showcase some of Australia's best talent.

To think this could be an actual sentence in the future: "Oh my god, do you know this song? I heard it while on hold to Centrelink the other day and thought it was a banger."

Now, you might be thinking: well obviously this would cost companies a fortune to license hours upon hours of music that could be played to their customers.

But Karen has a solution.

"We are also asking APRA AMCOS - which handles the licensing of Australian music - to come on board too," she said.

"It's only fair that musicians are compensated via royalty fees, particularly as many have lost their livelihoods over the past 18 months with Covid decimating the industry. We need a creative philanthropic solution. Let's keep Aussie music alive!"

It would be an incredible way for artists to keep bringing in the moolah while large parts of the country remain in lockdown.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie