I think you didn't read much of the article past the headline -- the article is about how FFT allows for efficient compression of just about any human-audible s

I think you didn't read much of the article past the headline -- the article is about how FFT allows for efficient compression of just about any human-audible sound, which allows us to send around the files more easily & efficiently. Your first example is about classic lossless formats, and your second example is about synthesis (which for the time being is significantly less expressive than recorded sound)