Tim Carleton
Opus No. 1
Song Bio
“Opus No. 1” is a track that has become synonymous with hold music on telephone calls. The song was composed by Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel in 1989, who recorded the instrumental on a four-track tape recorder in their garage as teenagers. When Deel went on to work for digital communications company Cisco in the 1990s, he saw the need for a piece of music to use as the default hold music for their new VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system and decided to use the track. Since then, it has become one of the most widely-used hold music tracks in history.
Despite the song’s omnipresence, Carleton stated that he has received no royalties for the song:
"I think that’s probably my most legit claim as a music artist. I didn’t make any money from my music."
“Opus No. 1” is a track that has become synonymous with hold music on telephone calls. The song was composed by Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel in 1989, who recorded the instrumental on a four-track tape recorder in their garage as teenagers. When Deel went on to work for digital communications company Cisco in the 1990s, he saw the need for a piece of music to use as the default hold music for their new VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system and decided to use the track. Since then, it has become one of the most widely-used hold music tracks in history.
Despite the song’s omnipresence, Carleton stated that he has received no royalties for the song:
"I think that’s probably my most legit claim as a music artist. I didn’t make any money from my music."