A petition to get businesses to play songs by Australian musicians as hold music is gathering steam.
The petition – titled “Petition big business to play and pay for Aussie music instead of annoying ‘on hold’ tunes” – has picked up nearly 7,000 signatures since launching on change.org two weeks ago.
Veteran publicist, strategist and talent manager Karen Eck launched the petition with one clear aim: to push Australian corporations to give local musicians a platform. Eck reckons that using Australian artists for hold music is a perfect opportunity to showcase the original songs of local creatives, and earn them some coin in the process.
The petition claims that, at present, most companies use “licence-free music on a repetitive loop”, which ostensibly seeks to make customers hang up or else “incur a persistent earworm.” A satisfying resolution to this – one that suits not just working musos, but also businesses and their customers – is to give pride of place to locally made music.
As Eck says, “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?”
The petition specifically targets QANTAS CEO Alan Joyce, a consequence of Eck having spent 7 hours and 19 minutes on hold with Qantas, during which time she was subjected to the same 15-second tune on repeat.
Since its launch, the petition has gained support from the recording industry association, ARIA, and the performing rights association and copyright owners society, APRA AMCOS. ARIA launched a similar petition, Our Soundtrack Our Stories, earlier in the month.
Sign and share the petition here.
