UK Retail Chain Tesco Launches iTunes Competitor

TechRadar reports that Tesco, a retail chain based in the UK, is launching an iTunes alternative called Digital Locker. Consumers who purchase media from the newly-developed digital store will be able to maintain a song or video’s title, while dropping the formatting that prohibits it from being downloaded on multiple platforms.

Tesco is teaming up with Blueprint Digital for the project, which will launch in October. “The way it would work practically is that when you buy a disc in store or online, that title would be put up into your Digital Locker which would immediately be accessible from a device registered to that locker,” Blueprint Digital’s CEO, Richard Bron, says.

After registering their devices with Digital Locker, consumers using iPods and other handheld mp3 devices will verify their identify via “a clearing house,” Bron says. “The content could then be either streamed or downloaded to that device, whenever or wherever they are.”

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