This Story About How Tim Cook Changed The 'On Hold' Music At Apple Shows Why He's Such A Great CEO

Apple / Jim Edwards / BI

According to a thread on Reddit - so take this with a pinch of salt - Apple CEO Tim Cook personally requested that the "on hold" music for people calling customer service be changed and improved after he received an email from an Apple user who was disappointed that the quality of the music was so poor. "Tim had tested this himself and agreed that something had to be done," the Reddit user says.

It almost doesn't matter whether this story is true or not. People will believe it because it dovetails seamlessly with Apple's obsession with detail and quality. And the circumstantial evidence leading up the story (told in full, below) is that Cook does indeed personally read the email he gets each day from customers. "I get hundreds, and some days thousands of emails from customers. This is a privilege because they talk to you as if you're sitting at their kitchen table," he once told NBC, according to Apple Insider.

The rap against Cook is that while he might be a good CEO, he may not be the great, visionary CEO that Apple needs. Recently, however, with Apple gearing up to release two large-format iPhone 6 models, an iWatch wearable device and - possibly - some sort of push into healthcare or an extension of Apple TV's capabilities, Cook is looking more and more like The Man.

- Reddit user

Part of the case in favor of Cook is not that he is a ranting visionary who can rouse the masses like founder Steve Jobs. Rather, it's that he's a super-manager who can make all the different arms of Apple's now-vast empire work together like Swiss (smart)watch.

So the idea that he would reach down into the company's bowels to tweak the way the on-hold muzak sounds when people call up for help sounds exactly like something this super-manager would do.

Here's what Reddit user "lerde" wrote:

I once sent Tim an email about the quality of music while on hold with Apple. It was super low quality, therefore an upbeat rock song sounded like pure distortion and really aggravated me because I was on hold for 20+ minutes for something so simple (iPhone didn't turn on, needed to set up a repair as in my country no Apple Store = have to send it to another country).

Much to my surprise a lady from Cupertino called me up the next day, saying she'd received a concerning email from Tim about ugly distortion hold music while on the phone, that Tim had tested this himself and agreed that something had to be done. She assured me that the hold music would be tested to make sure it sounded pleasant on all types of phones and connections.

The next time I called Apple, the hold music was indeed very pleasant.