Councils pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in royalties to play on-hold callers songs by groups such as Abba Jingles cost taxpayers £6.5 million over a three-and-a-half-year period Councils shelled out £300,000 on hold music since January 2010 120 out of 150 councils responded to a Freedom of Information request Councils have provoked anger after it emerged they spend hundreds of thousands of pounds in royalties to play pop tunes to on-hold callers. Local authorities shelled out nearly £6.5 million to the Performing Rights Society during a three-and-a-half-year period, according to newly released figures. This covered playing music in council buildings such as schools and children's homes, as well as concert venues. Classic: Tunes by Swedish pop group ABBA were among most played by council phone lines to callers left on hold But an eye-watering £300,000 of that total was spent by a handful of council to pipe music to callers left hanging on the end of the line, since January 2010. The staggering sums were unearthed in a Freedom of Information Act request by the Press Association, which requested data from all 150 authorities. Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers will be appalled that councils are wasting their hard-earned money to pay for hold music when there are plenty of free options available. People expect their cash to be spent on essential frontline services, not on this kind of frivolity. Local authorities would do better to ensure that calls get answered rather than wondering how to entertain the residents they leave hanging on the telephone. 'As for the wider issue of the cost of music licences, the rules need to be reviewed as it's deeply unfair that employers, both in the public and private sector, have to pay huge sums of money just for staff to tune into the radio.' High price: Councils have spent tens of thousands of pounds on royalty fees for music from artists, such as Christina Perri, pictured, to be played on phone lines to callers on hold Doncaster Council - which was one of the 120 authorities to respond to the request for information - admitted spending about £1,000 a year on hold music, where customers were greeted with ditties by American popstar Christina Perri and swinger Michael Buble's I Just Haven't Met You Yet. Mayor Ros Jones said: 'We have only just started using more varied and up-to-date music for customers to listen to when on hold or waiting for a response on the phone. This has been done to respond to feedback from customers. We regularly use feedback to improve the experience of our customers while ensuring a value-for-money approach. Most authorities either use a royalty-free track built into their telephone service or simply leave their customers waiting in silence. Tragedy: While councils across the country face spending cuts, many still found money to spend on pop music, from bands including the Bee Gees, to pipe down phone lines Among them Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons, The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss, and various pieces by Mozart were played down the telephone to users. Councils in Haringey, Hertfordshire and Sunderland also used royalty-free original pieces by playing music from local children and musicians. Councils' favourite: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's music is chosen by the majority of local authorities as an on hold telephone tune Royalty-free pieces by classical composers were also popular with councils - with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart the most frequently heard artist. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has also been heralded as the king of council hold music, a survey found. The Austrian composer's work was favoured as a means of keeping callers on the line by the majority of 150 councils questioned, according to a Freedom of Information request. Some local authorities discovered more modern easy-listening chart songs - such as Abba and Billy Ocean - dramatically reduced the number of people hanging up. The findings came as no surprise to Mozart expert professor Colin Lawson, director of the Royal College of Music. He said: 'I think the real reason is Mozart can be listened to at so many different levels. He is at the top of the classical charts regularly. The Mozart phenomenon is an extraordinary thing. You can have Mozart-themed chocolate, ski holidays, tours - he seems to have a particular resonance for the troubled 21st century. Selections from Debussy, Handel and Strauss featured in the data, provided by around 120 of the authorities contacted under FoI laws by the Press Association. But it was Mozart - and his Symphony No 40 and his Eine Kleine Nachtmusik pieces - which were deemed most suitable by council bosses. The fact that the work is out of copyright, and therefore does not command a fee, may have something to do with the selection. Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac Penny Lover - Lionel Richie Easy - Lionel Richie Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding Stars - Simply Red High - Lighthouse Family Ocean Drive - Lighthouse Family One Of Us - Abba The Winner Takes It All - Abba I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin Don't Know Why - Norah Jones Say What You Want - Texas I'll Stand By You - Pretenders Suddenly - Billy Ocean Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper Waiting For A Star To Fall - Boy Meets Girl Dreams - Fleetwood Mac What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong Nine Million Bicycles - Katie Melua But Prof Lawson there were other reasons the popular composer was hand-picked over his contemporaries. 'Symphony No 40 has got a certain passion to it,' he said. There is a lot to it and a lot of angst. But it is not the whole piece that people recognise, or that it is famous for. It is just the introduction. It is very popular with ringtones, another way younger people are able to enjoy his music. Chart-toppers such as the Lighthouse Family, Abba and Billy Ocean have been credited with improving customer satisfaction levels at a local authority - after bosses decided to swap hold music for taxpayer-funded pop tunes. Lincolnshire County Council said the number of people who hang up while on hold has more than halved since piping commercial tracks down the telephone to those in the queue. While most councils opt for rights-free jingles, classical music or just silence, taxpayers in Lincolnshire have had tracks by the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Katie Melua and Simply Red unleashed upon them. Lincolnshire is one of a handful of authorities to have ditched traditional hold music in favour of easy-listening chart songs, which require royalty payments to the Performing Rights Society (PRS). Councillor Richard Davies, executive member for highways at Lincolnshire County Council, said: 'People can be kept waiting for a few minutes at peak times so we use commercial songs for our on-hold music. Quite frankly, our callers love it. It costs just £175 per year and since we introduced it, we have reduced our abandoned call rate by half - from 4,000 calls per month to just 1,600. 'I would, however, like to take this opportunity to apologise for our use of the Lighthouse Family's Ocean Drive. I accept this was a deplorable lapse in judgement and we deserve all the criticism we get. 'In our defence, it was either that or M People's Moving On Up.' Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council pays just over £2,000 annually for playing all sorts of music, with its telephone system using tracks including Tom Jones" She's A Lady, Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol and Tiny Dancer by Elton John.