Lost amid all the hype surrounding the iPod and its copycats is the fact that, despite the obvious consumer interest in digital music, no one audio file format has yet emerged as the industry standard. Songs downloaded in iPod’s format, for instance, cannot be played on Sony’s player. More importantly, with a few major media companies (like Sony) controlling the majority of the available product, Apple is running a significant risk of having the iPod become the new Betamax if its format doesn’t become the standard, and soon.