On-hold music in France: licence fees, alternatives and waiting time to avoid

In France, the Intellectual Property Code makes the performance of a work subject to the consent of its author or the author’s successors in title (Article L122-4). Its Article L122-2 defines this performance as the communication of the work to the public by any process whatsoever, notably by telebroadcasting, understood as the transmission, by any telecommunications process, of sounds, images, documents, data and messages of any kind. Music played to people who call your business falls within this logic.

Two families of rights coexist. Copyright remunerates authors, composers and publishers, whose repertoire is managed by SACEM, the French collecting society for authors, composers and music publishers. Neighbouring rights remunerate, among others, the producers of recordings; for on-hold music, it is SCPA, a French collecting society for record producers, that acts for the producers of commercially released music. The two procedures are separate.

In its catalogue of licences for music users, SACEM offers a specific licence called « Musique d’attente téléphonique » (on-hold music), together with a declaration form and a rate scale. The form and the rate scale are available on SACEM’s customer website.

SCPA states on its website that a business choosing on-hold music from its repertoire must declare it using a declaration form, and that a flat-rate annual neighbouring-rights fee is charged, calculated on the number of lines that give access to the hold system. It specifies that this declaration must be made “even if the telephone music is royalty-free”. If you are unsure about your situation, contacting both organisations directly remains the safest course.

Waiting time does not have to be musical. A spoken information message can be more useful: opening hours, your website address, documents to prepare, a reminder that a quote can also be requested in writing. The caller does not entirely waste their time, and some questions are answered before anyone even picks up.

If you are set on having background sound, music composed specially for you, with a contract that clearly sets out the rights assigned, is another option. Have this contract checked against the declarations required by the collective management organisations, because the label “royalty-free” is not necessarily enough to rule out all formalities, as SCPA points out.

During busy periods, the queue is not the only possible answer. Offering callers the chance to leave their name, number and the subject of their request, with a commitment to call back within a stated time, stops them hanging up in frustration after several minutes of music.

That commitment must be kept. A promised call back that never happens does more damage than an honest wait. Deal first with requests concerning an emergency or an imminent appointment, then the others in order of arrival.

The best wait is the one that never happens. Some calls may concern simple questions, such as opening hours, an address or whether a slot is available, that do not need a member of the team to step in. If a reliable answer is given as soon as the call is picked up, the caller hangs up satisfied and the line is freed for requests that need a person.

This means knowing your calls. For a week or two, note the reason for each incoming call and the time spent answering it. You will quickly see what share is repetitive information and what share needs real handling. The former can be answered immediately, the latter transferred or given an organised call back, and on-hold music becomes the exception rather than the rule.

Alyas picks up at any hour and answers your callers’ questions using the information you provide. When a person needs to take over, it transfers the call to the number you have chosen or collects the caller’s contact details, and every call is transcribed and summarised in your client area. The ten-day free trial lets you measure how many waits it spares you.