Asterisk is the open-source phone switch Mark Spencer started in 1999. It runs underneath FreePBX, Grandstream’s UCM appliances and a long list of hosted “cloud PBX” services.
The hold music
The Asterisk project ships a small sound package called asterisk-moh-opsound. It holds five tracks sourced from opsound.org, the Creative Commons music site:
| File | Artist |
|---|---|
macroform-the_simplicity | Paul Shuler (Macroform) |
macroform-cold_day | Paul Shuler (Macroform) |
macroform-robot_dity | Paul Shuler (Macroform) |
manolo_camp-morning_coffee | Manolo Camp |
reno_project-system | Reno Project |
The package’s own LICENSE file says they’re distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 “through explicit permission from their authors.” The Asterisk docs page mentions opsound’s CC BY-SA 2.5 terms. Either way, it’s share-alike with attribution, and that’s why these are the real recordings, not recreations. Hit play above.
How to be sure
If you hear one of these five, you’re almost certainly talking to Asterisk or something built on it: FreePBX, a Grandstream UCM, or one of countless hosted systems. Many installers never change the default class.