Since the beginning of the 90s, Dagfinn was friendly with Fraunhofer IDMT’s former director, Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg. Prof.  Brandenburg previously worked in the mp3 development team at Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen and is considered a co-inventor of the mp3 format.  On Dagfinn’s passing, Prof. Brandenburg, remarked, "he is one of the unnamed heroes of mp3 history. With his name recognition, his large network in the music industry, and his wonderfully visionary ideas, he greatly helped our team at Fraunhofer IIS build connections to the music business and accelerate the application of what was then a very new technology. Dagfinn and our mp3 development team at Fraunhofer IIS started, among other things, a joint project on the legal aspects of music distribution. Dagfinn always believed in the success of mp3 and was proven right."

Since 2000, when Fraunhofer IDMT was founded in Ilmenau, Dagfinn Bach supported the institute as a trusted advisor who later became our business partner. As with mp3, Dagfinn recognized the potential of our new metadata technologies for semantic music search. We at Fraunhofer IDMT owe our collaboration in various strategically important pan-European research projects to his great dedication and commitment. This enabled us to successfully develop and establish our technologies for music recognition and recommendation. Long before most others, Dagfinn recognized the importance of sustainable business models and energy efficiency in media distribution; a topic that, among other things, led to an important project collaboration that continues to this day.

As a trained conductor, Dagfinn was an impressive networker and, in the best sense of the word, an impetus and pacesetter between the worlds of artists, technology providers, and users, funding bodies, and investors. In this way, he opened numerous doors and many good business opportunities for our institute. 

Many successful joint projects connected Dagfinn with Fraunhofer IDMT. We often went on business trips and visited international music fairs together; we attended workshops and meetings with broadcasters and investors. The collaboration with Dagfinn was always fruitful and very inspiring. His latest achievement was the establishment of Bach Technology (today known as Music DNA) as a Fraunhofer IDMT spin-off here in Ilmenau; a wonderful accolade for the many years of friendship and good cooperation that connected him with us. We have colleagues who were involved in helping Dagfinn create the company that are still working at Music DNA today.

Our friend and colleague Dagfinn was a visionary who always had big goals in mind and was always five steps ahead. As a level-headed entrepreneur who always found creative solutions to challenging situations, we will never forget his special knack for navigating difficult negotiations with expertise and calm. We will remember Dagfinn as a good-humored and extremely creative person who loved dreaming up new ideas with friends and acquaintances in the evening over a good glass of wine.        

Dear Dagfinn, our great dear colleague and friend, we would have wished so much more time for you to realize all your future plans and personal dreams. Although we will have many fond memories to cherish, our thoughts are now with your family and loved ones. We will always miss you.