September 23, 2013 12.45 pm This story is over 126 months old

Classic tunes keep council callers on hold

Upbeat songs: More people are willing to wait on hold when calling Lincolnshire County Council since classic songs have been introduced as on-hold music.
Lionel Richie's sultry voice keeps Lincolnshire County Council's callers entertained while on hold.

More people are willing to wait on hold when calling Lincolnshire County Council since classic songs have been introduced as on-hold music.

Lionel Richie, Simply Red, Aretha Franklin, Abba and Billy Ocean are some of the artists whose songs are used by the authority for its on-hold tracks.

Since introducing the new songs in February 2013, the council said it has seen the abandoned call rate cut by half, from around 4,000 calls per months to 1,600.

The new information came to light after a freedom of information request from the Press Association, which requested data from 150 authorities across the country.

It revealed that local authorities paid nearly £6.5 million to the Performing Rights Society during a three-and-a-half-year period for their on-hold music.

But in Lincolnshire, the move was much less costly, at only £175 per year.

Executive County Councillor Richard Davies said: “People can be kept waiting for a few minutes at peak times so we use commercial songs for our on-hold music.

“Quite frankly, our callers love it. It costs just £175 per year and since we introduced it, we have reduced our abandoned call rate by half – from 4,000 calls per month to just 1,600.

“I would, however, like to take this opportunity to apologise for our use of the Lighthouse Family’s Ocean Drive.

“I accept this was a deplorable lapse in judgement and we deserve all the criticism we get. In our defence, it was either that or M People’s Movin on up.”

On-hold tunes in Lincolnshire

If you want to listen to the County Council’s choice of on-hold music, The Lincolnite has compiled a Spotify playlist for you to listen to.

To save the playlist to your Spotify account, just hit the “Subscribe” button.

Alternatively, you can listen to the tracks on this player:

The full track listing is:

  • Be With You Everywhere – Fleetwood Mac
  • Penny lover – Lionel Richie
  • Easy – Lionel Richie
  • Dock of the bay – Ottis Reading
  • Stars – Simply Red
  • High – Lighthouse Family
  • Ocean Drive – Lighthouse Family
  • One of Us – Abba
  • Winner takes it all – Abba
  • Say A Little Prayer – Aretha Franklin
  • Don`t Know Why – Norah Jones
  • Say What You Want – Texas
  • Stand by You – Pretenders
  • Suddenly – Billy Ocean
  • Time After Time – Cyndi Lauper
  • Waiting For a Star – Boy meets girl
  • Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
  • Wonderful world – Louis Armstrong
  • Nine Million Bicycles – Katie Melua