I am thinking of adding music on hold to my Nortel 616, for personal use only, no business use of any kind. Is that legal to do? Thankyou.

No business use, yes.

-Hal

No just home use, as I don't have a business at all. I will not install the music on hold if it at all illegal.

It will depend on what kind of music is playing. The whole point of FCC site licenses is to make sure the artists/copyright owners aren't being ripped off.If you're playing public domain music, it won't matter if you're a business or not. Rebroadcast of copyrighted material is the illegal part of all this, not whether or not you're a business.

Ok thank you all, I will not be installing the music on hold due to the copyright laws on this.

Do a search for Royalty Free Music.
You can download music for free - or pay once to download and then use it all you want.

Some of it is pretty good music and different varieties of music.

We called our biggest local PBS station once to see if we could tune a radio to their channel but being public radio didn't change a thing. They also play copyrighted music.

You have a better chance of winning the lottery then the FCC busting down your door.

We had a customer who got a cease and desist letter, but that is one time.

"I will not be installing the music on hold due to the copyright laws on this"

Rubbish!!!
Get the Led out!

The laws/rules applies to a business only.
If you are are taking in money while re-broadcasting then that falls under a business.

Wow. I have canned music on my business system and Alexa (Alexa, volume 5) next to my desk phone. I can listen to what I want and the customer gets whatever Grandstream or Yeastar uses.

Nortel have blip noises...good enough for residential.

Carl

I have heard of multiple businesses getting C&D letters over playing radio stations through their phone systems as MOH. I have never heard of a private person getting one though. My opinion is do it and don't fret. If you receive a C&D just unplug the music source.