The City Of Ottawa Is Using Telephone Hold Music To Showcase Its Local Artists

For the past four months, citizens of the Canadian city of Ottawa have probably noticed that, when calling up the council about getting a new bin or unfair water rates or whatever it is responsible members of society do, the hold tunes they hear are probably a cut above the usual "your call is important to us" muzak.

This is because, back in May, the City Of Ottawa began implementing a program it has dubbed #Ottmusik, which puts local artists in the spotlight by playing their tunes to waiting callers, rotating in new acts every 12 weeks.

The initiative is about midway through its second crop of acts, currently featuring a diverse array of Ottawa-based musos who make everything from lo-fi ethereal pop (Pipahauntas), experimental instrumentals (Flying Horses) and eclectic hip hop (Artiztik) to folk-roots (Kristine St-Pierre), jangly pop-rock (Formerly Unknown) and good, old-fashioned dirty rockabilly blues (JW Jones).

Previously featured artists for the city, who dominated the lines from 13 May to 5 August, include Boyhood, Ben Globerman, Nicole Lefebvre, YAO, Brea Lawrenson and Deux Saison. The next batch of artists will take over from the present crop on 21 October, holding court till 13 January 2016.

As explained in its statement about the plan, "The City's phone systems now feature new music created by local talent. With #ottmusik, the City of Ottawa is furthering its commitment to providing new opportunities to Ottawa's cultural community, while offering citizens an enhanced and unique experience when calling the City.

"The City wants to help musicians reach a broader audience, and show our appreciation of what you do for our city."

Imagine, instead of being greeted by repetitive, soul-destroying elevator music, you found tunes like this to help you while away the time while the operator makes you squirm:

Seriously, we hope at least someone with a bit of council pull in one or more of our capitals sees this, because, just quietly, it'd be a really good way to provide extra support to our local artists, and reduce the probably very real pandemic of hold-music-induced rage attacks on desks and telephones around the nation.

To find out more about the City of Ottawa's #Ottmusik initiative, see the council's website.