Unusual opportunity for Queensland musicians to be heard by thousands

Transport and Main Roads plans to update its on-hold music with new royalty-free options, with genres to include classical, country, laidback, rock, specialty and Christmas.

If you dial 13 23 80 or 13 23 90 now to speak to a TMR customer service officer, and have to wait on hold, you will hear "contemporary instrumental music" the department bought from a registered company.

A TMR spokeswoman said the department was open to all kinds of royalty-free music options and regularly changed the current files to provide variety.

"The department does not use music that has royalties attached, like Blue Road by Busby Marou," she said.

"The on-hold music can play between one and three different music files, and over the festive season we do use royalty-free Christmas music to spread the seasonal cheer."

Festive music will hit the TMR on-hold airwaves from December 1.

The call-out, detailed in a tender, also seeks male and female voice talent for ad-hoc recordings of speech for the "interactive voice response", and holiday, open hours and other messages.

The TMR spokeswoman said when looking for voice talent, several samples were sent out to staff for their opinion.

"We generally look for calming tones with clear diction," she said.

"On occasions, we have specifically looked for a different voice to distinguish where in a customer journey a fault or complaint may be originating from."

The spokeswoman said there were no plans to replace the current voices except where messages were either incorrect or irrelevant.

"This is a regular process TMR undergoes to ensure messaging is current and up to date," she said.

Anyone interested in taking part in tender, which closes on December 4, has been advised there are strict formatting requirements and all music must be royalty free.