Karlheinz Brandenburg and The Secret History of MP3

Early History

Brandenburg first came to wrestle with the problems of compressing
music as early as 1977. Professor Dieter Seitzer had the idea of
creating a method of transferring music over a standard phone line.
His ideas were ahead of their time and he was initially refused any
research money to develop them, but nevertheless established a
group of technicians and scientists that had an interest in the
subject. Brandenburg's interest in mathematics, electronics and

off the wall ideas made him a natural ally.
Basic compression techniques and theories were formed long before
the pre-computer era, but not a lot was known about applying them
to set mediums such as sound. Today, Brandenburg has expressed
surprise that so few projects had explored the area previously;
especially when it had a huge commercial potential.
With little previous research to build on, the team had to create their
own methods, theories and research. They used quiet tracks such as
Susan Vega's 'Tom's Diner' as their test bed. Here the compromises
and faults would be easier to pick up. Therefore Vega can claim to be
the first artist of MP3.

.

.

Tomado de: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A406973