"Quick trivia question: what was the first audio title etched with lasers on a compact disc (CD)? Answer: ABBA's The Visitors in 1982. Since this historic moment in culture and technology, more than 200 billion compact discs have been sold, and the format has provided a foundational element for the digital music revolution, as well as a friendly way of storing large quantities of data that has greatly enhanced computer functionality. But where did the CD originate, and how can it help us think about innovation?

A Sound Invention
The answer to the first question is more modest than you might expect. James T. Russell, from the state of Washington (USA), is an engineer and an audiophile. As much as he loved music, his technical education reminded him that every time he listened to a vinyl record, the friction from the needle degraded the recording material and overtime reduced the quality of the sound.
Russell had designed and built the first electron beam welder, so when he joined Battelle Laboratory in 1965, he had already thought of combining his audio problem with his electron solution to create a recording device that would never touch the material and could deliver top-quality music even after thousands of hours of playback."