Music on Hold

Music on Hold

Music on Hold (MOH) is the audio callers hear while they wait — on hold during a transfer, in a queue waiting for an agent, or parked in a parking lot. The page has two layers: tracks (individual audio files) and playlists (named, ordered collections of tracks).

Navigate to Nova PBX → Media → Music on Hold.

Video

Watch on YouTube ↗

Screenshot

Caution

Make sure you have the rights to play your audio to callers — performance-rights licensing for commercial music varies by region. Royalty-free or self-produced audio avoids the issue entirely.

Tracks

The Tracks tab lists every hold-music file with its duration and upload date. Click the play button to listen in your browser.

Uploading a track

1. Click Upload track.
2. Optionally give it a Track name (defaults to the filename).
3. Drag-and-drop or browse for the audio file — WAV, MP3, or OGG, up to 25 MB.
4. Click Upload.

Audio is converted to the telephony format server-side. Calls are narrowband (8 kHz), so simple melodies and spoken word survive much better than dense, high-fidelity mixes; pre-encoding to 16 kHz mono WAV gives the most predictable result.

Deleting a track

Click the trash icon and confirm. Playlists that referenced the track skip it — they don’t break, they just get shorter.

Playlists

The Playlists tab groups tracks into named lists:

Each playlist card shows its name, a Default badge on the org-wide default, an enabled switch, and the numbered track list.

• Create — click New playlist, name it, and tick the tracks to include.
• Reorder — use the up/down arrows next to each track; tracks play top-to-bottom.
• Set as default — promotes a playlist to the organization default. Exactly one playlist is default at a time.
• Enable/disable — the switch parks a playlist without deleting it (useful for seasonal sets).
• Delete — removes the playlist only; its tracks stay in the library.

Where hold music is applied

Queues, parking lots, and extensions each carry their own hold music selection:

• Queues — on the queue’s edit page (Queues); callers waiting for an agent hear this.
• Parking lots — on the parking lot’s edit page (Parking Lots); parked callers hear this.
• Extensions — Features tab on the extension (Extensions); applies when that extension puts a caller on hold.

Those selectors currently offer the platform’s built-in hold-music sets (Default plus Modern 1–3). Custom tracks and playlists you stage on this page form your organization’s hold-music library; assigning a custom playlist directly to a queue is on the roadmap.

Common patterns

• Seasonal rotation — keep Holiday and Standard playlists side by side and flip which one is default.
• Message-on-hold — upload a recorded promo or compliance message as a track and mix it into the playlist between music beds.
• Silence/compliance — some industries require no music on hold; upload a silent or tone-only track.

Troubleshooting

• Audio is choppy on hold — the file is likely high-bitrate or very large; re-encode to 16 kHz mono WAV. Files over 25 MB are rejected at upload.
• Track sounds great in the browser but dull on a call — expected: calls are 8 kHz audio. Pick material that survives narrowband.
• My playlist isn’t in the queue’s dropdown — the queue dropdown lists the built-in hold-music sets today; custom playlist assignment is coming.