Wired's "Audiophiles Unite!" special report

From A Music File by Any Other Name:
"Finding music on the internet is getting easier by the week as legit and less-than-legit file-trading services show up by the dozens. Given all of the options, the number and variety of file formats can be ultimately confusing for the uninitiated.
Today we'll study the most popular audio formats and the players that support them. We'll look strictly at audio-file formats that utilize lossy compression, because the small file size and ultimate portability of compressed audio files has afforded them huge popularity, not to mention near ubiquity, on the web. We'll also be looking exclusively at downloadable, and not streaming, file types."

The author then continues to explore audio compression and digital audio file types. Worth a read if this stuff has confused you in the past.

From Audiophiles Unite! Draws Feedback:
"We are no longer limited to a CD's delivery format of 700 MB (that's only a 10-minute download now), so why is my music still being ripped by Apple Computer, Napster and Musicmatch from a CD in the first place? The music on a CD is compressed to begin with! I want what comes from the studio, whatever the file size, before it's ripped, before the highs and lows are taken out, and definitely before it's compressed. That's future-proof, that's what the internet allows and, most importantly, it will finally shut up the vinyl people. -- Adam Emery"

Amen to THAT! There are a few more responses from audio nerds that are worth reading at that link above which is just a response to a series of articles you can read here ("Old Rips: May They Rest in Peace"), here ("When Hi-Fi Meets the IPod"), and the article mentioned previously here ("A Music File by Any Other Name"). Any audio-dork/music nerd/audiophile/wanna-be should read those articles, if you haven't already.