11.   The company also agreed to read menus to blind customers or provide them in an audio format.

12.   The files are relatively small when compared to other audio formats, such as the popular WAV format found on computers that use Microsoft Windows.

13.   The online companies would then allow their customers to download songs or listen to them on the site, in a so-called streaming audio format.

14.   The new surround-sound audio format is expected to use a similar system.

15.   Whoever owns rights to the underlying technical standard, as Sony and Philips do with the original audio CD format, stand to reap billions of dollars in royalties.

16.   Even with music companies behind it, Dataplay faces a lot of competition as an audio format, and there are discouraging precedents.