This Windows program is available for a free 14 day trial. It supports MP3, MP2, MOD, WAV, and Windows MediaPlayer audio formats. Many other software MP3 players are available. This is an excellent device that sports 64MB storage for over 60 minutes of audio. Many other hardware players are available.
All methods use lossy compression.
The highest compression uses perceptual coding methods that eliminate effects that can't be perceived by the listener. Streaming is permitted by breaking the file up into smaller segments. Playing can begin after one segment is fully received. Boundary distortions depend on the degree of predictive coding. Some newer streaming methods use TCP because of the firewall problem.