Rare Medium
An innovative firm sells music by the kilobyte.
By Richard McGill Murphy

(FORTUNE Small Business) – Rock & roll is about horrifying your parents, and nothing sends Mom and Dad up a tree faster than devil worship. That partly explains the Satanic imagery in a lot of rock music. In 1967 the Rolling Stones released Their Satanic Majesties Request. In the 1970s Black Sabbath's devil dirges begat the blood-puking stage antics of Kiss, and from there it's a straight shot to Slayer and Marilyn Manson.

What to make, then, of "We are not evil," the slogan of an indie music company called Magnatune? According to founder John Buckman, 36, Magnatune is an alternative to an increasingly evil music industry. The Berkeley-based label sells exclusively online and allows listeners to set their own prices and download as much music as they like before buying.

Buckman's latest innovation, introduced in March, is the Tuneplug ($70), a tiny, reusable flash drive that includes ten rock albums in a wild profusion of styles. My favorite is Myles Cochran, a moody singer-songwriter whose best tunes have a soaring, devotional quality that recalls the Velvet Underground in "Sunday Morning" mode. —Richard McGill Murphy