Matthew Leek has spent more than four years getting a compact disc to resemble a fruit roll-up. His company, ThinDisc Media, has figured out how to make a completely functional digital disc that's five times thinner than a regular DVD or CD. The ThinDisc is also flexible enough to wrap around soda cans and be inserted into magazines without breaking.

It sounds simple, but the format could prove attractive to companies who would like a cheap way to mass mail their digital promotion campaigns, software fixes and free samples of music and movies. Leek estimates that Thindiscs will cost about half as much to produce as regular discs, since the material and packaging are cheaper and won't require as much planning. ``With regular CDs, you have to wait until the end of the printing process to put them in a magazine so they don't break, and you have to plan the insertions way in advance,'' says Leek. ``AOL, for example, spends a fortune just sending out their trial CDs.''

Leek is an electrical engineer who has worked on compact disc technology for companies like General Electric (NYSE: GE - news). He founded ThinDisc in 1996 with his partner, Tam Steele, who has a background in the printing and direct mail industries. ThinDisc has raised $4.1 million from private investors and one entertainment company, Rainmaker Digital, in Hollywood, Calif. It is currently raising another $20 million to finish building its factory. The company's first customers will be in the media business. Publishers, advertisers and entertainment companies are the likeliest targets, but Leek sees opportunities in less obvious areas, too. ``You could use this to wrap a safety video around a prescription bottle or power tools,'' he says.