Set up music on hold

Organizations typically get their music on hold from one of these three sources:

• Use an artist's music and make sure that you get a license for using the music, so that the artist gets paid for your use of their work.

  Which organization handles licensing depends on the country in which you want to use the music. In Denmark, for example, such licenses are handled by KODA, who offer a price calculator for music on hold on their website.

• Buy your music on hold from companies that specialize in such music.

  A simple web search for music on hold (you may want to do the search in your own language) will typically find you numerous companies that offer such services. Some companies sell rights-free music, other companies sell music together with the right to use it.

• Find rights-free (royalty-free) music online, for example on freemusicarchive.org.

  Note that music from such sources may be legal for certain types of use, but not for others. Make sure that the music you choose is legal to use for music on hold.

The music that comes with your Zylinc solution by default is rights-free.

Because telephone audio is typically compressed for performance reasons, not all music will sound perfect when used as music on hold. That's why many organizations use neutral music for music on hold, rather than music that callers are likely to have heard often on the radio, etc. That way, callers are less likely to notice the possible difference in quality.

The best rule of thumb when you need to determine the quality of your music on hold is to upload the music to your Zylinc solution, and then make a call to the Zylinc solution in order to try it out.

Music on hold that you want to upload to your Zylinc solution must be in one of these file formats:

• .mp3

• .wav

To upload music on hold to your Zylinc solution:

1. In the Administration Portal menu, select AUDIO > Upload Audio Files.

2. In the Music On Hold section, click Choose File, and select the required music on hold file.

3. Specify a Volume Factor.

   Enter 1 to use the original volume of the music on hold file.

   To use a lower volume, enter a number that's smaller than one. For example, 0.5 will halve the original volume.

   To use a higher volume, enter a number that's higher than 1. For example, 2 will double the original volume.

   If you use a volume factor that's higher than 1, it can result in a form of distortion known as clipping. When that's case, the caller experience will be negatively affected, and clipping can also damage the audio file. That's why you shouldn't normally use a volume factor that's higher than 1.

   To make multiple audio tracks have the same volume level, it's often a better idea to use audio editing software, such as the free, open-source tool Audacity that has a feature called Normalize for this purpose.

4. Specify a descriptive Name for the music on hold file. The name mustn't contain spaces.

5. Music on hold files must be grouped. This is because when you later select music on hold for a queue, you don't select individual music on hold files directly. Instead, you select a group, and your Zylinc solution will then use all music on hold files that belong to that group.

   A group must contain a minimum of one music on hold file, but if you include multiple music on hold files in a group, you can create a “playlist” of music on hold files that you can use for one or more queues.

   Either select an existing Group, or select - NEW - and specify the required group name in the next field.

6. Optionally, type any Comments.

7. If you want your music on hold file to overwrite an existing file with the same name, select Overwrite.

8. Click Upload.

To assign music on hold to a queue:

1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues, and click the name of the queue that you want to edit.

2. Under Announcements, select the required music on hold group in the Music on hold menu.

   Remember that when you select music on hold for a queue, you don't select individual music on hold files directly. Instead, you select a group, and your Zylinc solution will then use all music on hold files that belong to that group.

   If you want to know which music on hold files a certain group contains, see Manage music on hold in the following.

3. If you want to use different music on hold if the callers are asked to wait after the call has been answered, you can select a different music on hold group in the Answered menu. If not, make sure that the menu shows - no difference -.

4. Click Save.

Repeat as necessary for other queues.

The Administration Portal offers basic management of the music on hold files that you've uploaded to your Zylinc solution:

In the Administration Portal menu, select AUDIO > Music On Hold to:

• View which group an individual music on hold file belongs to. Remember that when you select music on hold for a queue, you don't select individual music on hold files directly. Instead, you select a group, and your Zylinc solution will then use all music on hold files that belong to that group.

• View upload dates.

• View who uploaded a file, and the file's volume factor, if you place your pointer over the icon.

• Listen to the file.

  Don't use this feature to determine the audio quality that callers will experience. The best way to do that is to call the actual queue.

  If you can't use audio, for example because you access Zylinc Administration Portal via Remote desktop, you can right-click the required announcements to download them and then listen to them.

• Delete the file.