If you decide you want a customized message instead, take the time to listen to the in-house voice talents and make sure the voices are consistent with the image your company wants to project. You may want to review the play list if there are specific pieces of music you want to play.

Find out what creative talent the vendor offers to help you design a custom program. It also wouldn't hurt to listen to some custom programs the vendor has developed for its clients.

Also, if you do want to choose music for your on-hold system, don't expect to get Yanni's greatest hits. Royalties for popular music is extremely expensive (consider the multi-million dollar pricetags for the rights to songs used in current TV ads). For this reason, services will highly discourage businesses from broadcasting a local radio station, since the royalties could potentially be astronomical. (See Licensing and Copyrights.)