Why bother with lossy encoding?

Clyde Lyman wrote:
> With the vast amounts of memory we have today, why bother with lossy
> files at all unless it's to keep continuity with other elements of a
> collection?

I'm not sure what "continuity with other elements of a collection" means.

Lossy encoding is useful for:

- delivering multimedia over slow links or to low-end computers (mobile 
phones, tablets, some laptops, toys). Even YouTube finds it useful to 
encode a lot of audio as Opus and a lot of video with VP9 nowadays.

- embedded players that don't handle lossless encoding (some cars and some 
portable playing devices don't support FLAC, WAV, or AIFF files, for example)

- maximizing use of (as you point out) inexpensive storage. If I can't tell 
the difference between a high-quality Opus encoding over the same audio 
ripped from an ordinary Red Book audio CD and encoded as a FLAC (which is 
lossless), I might choose to keep the Opus file because it uses 
significantly less space and works with every computer program I use for 
playback. Thus my casual listening needs are met and I get to store a lot 
more audio.


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