With rival mobile phone manufacturers always angling for an Apple iPhone killer, and rival MP3 player manufacturers hunting for an Apple iPod killer, it’s hardly surprising that rival music download portals are also rather keen on supplanting Apple’s hugely popular iTunes Store. It’s a hard life being on top.
Tesco unveils its new DRM-free Tesco Digital music and media download store. Credit: Otama/Flickr.
Bearing that in mind, yet another gladiator has taken to the bloody download arena this week, with news that UK shopping giant Tesco is to launch its new Tesco Digital online service, a one-stop shop that’s been designed “for everyone’s entertainment needs.”
While mounting serious competition against the all-conquering international power of the iTunes Store might be somewhat of a stretch for Tesco’s new service, the UK retailer does seem rather confident about its chances, boasting that Tesco Digital is “likely to shake-up the online entertainment world.”
The new online service is due to launch on May 01 and will be accessible for a wide range of mobile digital music devices, including the iPod. Furthermore, according to Tesco, the new online service will open offering its customers access to more than 3.3 million music tracks, with 1.6 million of those available in the DRM-free MP3 format.
Tesco is looking to increase its DRM copy protection-free MP3 coverage across the entire service by the end of the year.
As an added usage bonus, Tesco Digital will also provide more than a hundred free playable Flash games for its customers at launch, while the service itself is also expected to expand to include episodic television, movie and videogame downloads in the near future.
“The new Tesco Digital site is more than a music download portal -- we wanted to create an exciting and easy-to-use entertainment shop that Tesco customers of all ages and technical ability can use and trust,” explained Tesco commercial director Graham Harris. “We’re starting out with a comprehensive music offering, but customers can expect downloadable TV and films as well as games to buy very soon.”
Although Tesco’s ambitions for Tesco Digital would certainly cast the overall service in the same light as iTunes -- at least in terms of content coverage -- the retailer has not yet divulged the most important element, which is price.
As of the service’s official announcement, Tesco has only offered that prices of single tracks, albums and music/music video bundles will be competitive and variable. Tesco has also yet to confirm whether its new service has secured content from the ‘big four’ music providers -- namely Warner Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music and EMI Group.
The existing Tesco music download portal, which was launched in 2004, presently offers customers around one million WMA (Windows Media Audio) song tracks for 0.79 GBP each. The WMA restriction means that content can not be played on Apple’s range of iPod player.
In terms of the current UK coverage of Tesco’s online music service, research specialist Nielsen Online offers that Tesco attracts around 4.6 million monthly visitors, while iTunes pulls in approximately 5.2 million.
View blog reactions
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment! (no registration required)
Advertising
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment! (no registration required)