https://modarchive.org/index.php?article-modules , linked from the Help menu at the top of the ModArchive UI, looks like a good introduction to the concept of modules / tracks.
While one can easily make large modules by using dozens of large samples, it's often possible to obtain minutes of decent to good quality music in a file of well under 1 MB, which is far less than MP3 files of decent quality, let alone losslessly compressed formats such as FLAC. All it takes is a playing program, which isn't necessarily a huge piece of code, especially if one restricts the support to the most popular formats: MOD, STM+S3M, XM, IT, (MPTM which goes even further wrt. capabilities and effects, it's a beast).
I somewhat disagree with one of the mod players listed on that page, though... I know that it's relatively popular, but last time I checked, mikmod had significant playing inaccuracies.