Reel Sound Productions

Reel Sound Productions is a Fort Lauderdale, Florida based audio marketing company that creates audio for websites, telephone systems and On Hold systems. In addition, the company produces website audio, storecasting (overhead audio through speakers) content, jingles and telephone prompts. Although some companies choose to play the radio (which violates U.S. copyright laws) or silence, a more generally accepted and popular method of "On Hold" is customized/branded productions.

History
Reel Sound Productions began in the 1980s as Flying Fox Productions and was producing music for documentary films in New York, California and New Jersey. The owners were graduates of Berklee College of Music and became well known for their film music in the industrial, training and documentary film score circles. When the Internet started to develop in the 1990s Reel Sound saw the need to have audio on websites as well. They developed a plan to implement audio on many websites for car manufacturers, hotels and computer makers and to this day produce audio for websites, On Hold programs for corporations and write music (original and ghostwriters) worldwide

Equipment and formats
Most On Hold systems are integrated into a businesses telephone system via an audio jack on the telephone equipment labeled "MOH". The source of the music is usually from CDs or digital files such as MP3, but some older systems may still use cassette tapes (sometimes employing endless-loops), or reel-to-reel tape players. With the advancement of the Internet and high-speed data connections, players that take adavantage of this technology are now common and facilitate the copying of files to thousands of locations instantaneously.

Stock MOH CDs (with or without voice-overs)
Productions are available that have been specifically recorded and licensed for royalty free applications. These may contain only music, or may include periodic voice-overs with messages such as "Your call is important" or "Please stay on the line". Such off-the-shelf recordings may be generic or may be specific to individual industries, but usually are not customized for individual companies.

Custom-designed MOH
Productions (or other MOH formats, such as MP3 files) can be custom-created to suit the particular needs of a business. The announcements can be scripted to emphasize particular attributes of the business such as location, store hours, or special promotions or services.

Styles of music

The style of music mixed with the production depends largely on the type of business offering the service. It is generally best to present music that will not be offensive to the audience, but that would also be consistent with the type of caller that would typically be listening to it. For example, a western apparel store may choose to play country music. A Christian book store may choose to play popular Christian music. A university may choose to play classical music. Light classics, smooth jazz, and beautiful music are common choices, as is fully synthesized melodic music.

Benefits

Retains callers and propects by doing one or more of the following:
*Assures the caller that their call is still connected
*Entertains the caller, which gives the impression that the time spent on hold is shorter than what it really is
*Informs the caller of his place in queue and the approximate length of time until his call will be taken
*Informs the caller of information about the company, such as store hours, locations, or services
*Informs the caller about promotions or new products
*Informs the caller about options to leave the on-hold system, such as pressing a key to leave a voicemail or to be transferred to a different department

Statistics
*80% of all business calls get placed "On Hold" every day.
*88% of people "On Hold" prefer customized productions over silence or the radio
*Silence will prompt people to hang up within 30 seconds if the call is not connected.
*Of those that hang up, 42% will never call back if they can call a competitor.

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