Nectar Music Store opens – buy songs for sandwiches

Digital Music
Share

nectar-music-store.jpgI’m sitting here thinking of all the years I’ve turned my nose up at Nectar Points, all the food I’ve bought, all the electricity bills I’ve paid and I’m cursing. I’m cursing because there’s finally something I’d like to use them for now that the loyalty card company has launched the Nectar Music Store.

I feel like I could be a Nectar millionaire if only I could have been bothered and now I’m being told you can even trade them in for air miles! Not only could I have been a loyalty points magnate but I could be doing so in some really hot and exotic country. Damn it. Anyway, to the details. Step this way to find out how their music store works…

Nectar-music.jpg

The first thing to note is that there are no restrictions. That’s right, you heard me. We’re talking DRM-free. The next tick is that they’ve just about managed to secure all four of the majors, the fourth being in positive negotiations as we speak. Good stuff. Now to the price.

Well, you buy downloads in bundles of 20, 30, 40 or 50 and they’ll cost you 3,000; 5,500; 7,200 and 8,900 points respectively. Those of you that drink Nectar like bees will know that 500 points gets you a £2.50 voucher, so there’s an exchange rate of about half a penny to one point. That means the bundles work out as 75p, 92p, 90p and 89p per track. Sadly, the 20 bundle is a launch offer only, so buy your music like your fags for the time being – packs of twenty.

The footnote to this post is that the service is being promoted with a limited offer of a bonus track. From 1st to 15th October, you can download a free mp3 of one of the songs from the new Dido album. And it sounded so good until then.

So, depressive songstresses aside, the Nectar Music Store sounds like a rather interesting package and because of its nature, it won’t necessarily compete with the one hundred and one other download stores out there. After all, you accrew credits for the scheme on a passive basis.

The only frightening part is when you work out how much you’re really spending on each track. Sure, its effectively 75p per download but you only earn two Nectar points for every one pound you spend in the shops. So, those 20 songs actually cost £1,500. That’s around 50 packets of sandwiches each. No wonder the Dido one’s for free. Who the hell would pay £75 for that?

Disclaimer:All calculations are based on the price of ham and cheese sandwich from Tescos. No mayo.

Nectar Music Store

Related posts: Amazon Music Store to launch | Swap your old phone for Nectar

Daniel Sung
For latest tech stories go to TechDigest.tv