So Tesco is to launch its own online download store. Am I alone in thinking this is a worrying development? Not because it poses serious competition for Play Digital, HMV and Woolies, but because it’s so damn boring.

I mean, ordering a track alongside your internet shopping just isn’t cricket is it? Part of the sad decline of physical music formats is that the glee of shopping for music has been ripped from us.

Whereas the 7-inch vinyl releases and early CD singles meant record shopping was a serious pastime, now it’s just part of history. Retailers no longer devote space to stuff that doesn’t shift buckets – go into Woolworths and this week’s CD singles are contained within a single cardboard standee. Not on shelves – on a few pieces of cheap cardboard poorly slotted together by the Saturday boy. It might as well be in the shape of a gravestone.

Sad thing is, this is part of the supermarketisation of Britain. The smaller retailers fold under the weight of the large. We’ve seen the same thing happen online before of course, but can even large online music sellers such as Play.com survive against the might of a player like Tesco?

We’d like to hope so. In fact, the web has a funny way of levelling companies, pitching even small etailers against the big boys. You’d have to hope that continues, otherwise life would be rather dull.