Sainsburys hopes Nectar will prove sweeter than Apple

It makes sense, right? Sainsburys sells apples, so it can be like Apple. Or, at least, it's going to offer downloads through its website.

But wait, it's not just another download site in an already overcrowded market:

To differentiate the service from Apple iTunes and other music download stores, Sainsbury's said that each download...

Yes?

... will earn customers Nectar Card loyalty points.

Except that isn't actually true, as individual tracks cost 89p, and - if you spend a very long time searching through the site, eventually you'll find this:

Nectar points are awarded at 2 points per full £1 spent on the site. Therefore, if your item costs £4.99, you will be awarded 8 nectar points.

It doesn't make explicit, but, equally therefore, if you buy twenty single tracks in twenty transactions, you'll earn, erm, no Nectar points whatsoever.

Still, you might get a little shiver of delight buying the Gonad's Tesco Lorry from Sainsburys.

Nectar remember they have a music store

Nectar - the Tesco Clubcard for people who don't shop at Tesco - launched a music store a few months back, quickly securing a position as the music download destination which people look most surprised about when they remember it exists.

Now, though, they've decided to try and build some sort of market share, and are doing so with a free Alesha Dixon track and a competition where you can dance with her.

That's actually dance, it's not a euphemism.

Alesha Dixon recently helped Chris Moyles to get to the top of Kilimanjaro, so maybe she's viewing 'making Nectar a music destination' as the next level of uphill challenge.

The world's most expensive download store?

Nectar - Green Shield Stamps without the need to lick anything (unless you want to) - has launched a downloads store where you can redeem your points for tunes.

Now, obviously, you don't have to collect points and redeem them, and when you get the points you could see it as a bonus gift rather than something you're actually paying for, but at 30 tunes in return for 5,500 points, you're looking at getting a song every time you spend £91.60.

They are giving away a free Dido song, though. Sorry, I made that sound like it was sweetening the deal, didn't I?