It is also possible to view a system's architecture using layered descriptions, moving from the conceptual to the physical implementation. Each layer adds more detail as to how a task is actually accomplished.
But it also simplifies and hides the more technological aspects of file control from the user.
The user's architectural view of the file-system, think Windows folders, does not care how the data is stored, only that it is easily and correctly identified, and that it can be accessed.
A system may use a variety of different file-system management protocols, such as NTFS for Windows or ext3 for Linux, to store and fetch files along with recording meta-data such as ownership, access privileges and time created.
The actual file data may be stored on a magnetic hard drive, a CD/DVD, or in a solid-state device (SSD), each of which uses completely different technology and encoding techniques to store and transfer data.
The purpose of an architectural view is to hide certain aspects of the reality of a system and emphasize and simplify other aspects.
Is memory read in 8 bit units or 32 bit units?
Is data encoded on magnetic media using frequency modulation?
CD reader reads/interprets data by analyzing reflected laser light from a 'track' on the CD. The 'data' is encoded so that a change in reflectively in a given time span represents a zero and a lack of change represents a one. The reflective and non-reflective bits are also arranged so that correct timing may be derived when reading.
The music software, on the other hand, only cares that a series of bytes of data are supplied to it in a timely manor and that a sequence of these bytes can be decoded to represent the signal to send to the speaker to generate the sound desired.