Last.fm Purchased By CBS Corp For $280 Million

Last.fm, the self-described “social music revolution,” has been acquired by “US media giant CBS Corporation for $280m, the largest-ever…Web 2.0 acquisition” in the UK.

The service, built to provide music fans worldwide with a base of fellow audiophiles with which to share favorite tunes and discover new ones easily, has in five years amassed a usership of “more than 15 million” people, making it a clearly desirable property – in this instance desirable for a business that has only recently (publicly) shown an interested in the world of Web 2.0. (CBS Corp last week announced its purchase of Wallstrip, which, according to footage recorded for a recent episode of the financial video podcast, few at its New York offices have been made privy to. That goes to show just how slowly big businesses really move.)

If one looks at CBS’s interests in a snapshot – TV, Web, and radio – Last.fm is surely a wise investment. It is an item which specializes in offering its users a sort of “Radio 2.0” experience, what with their ability to create and enjoy custom stations and so forth.

The truth of the matter is that if traditional radio is to survive and move with the times, it will have to offer something similarly user/listener-centric. CBS’s decision to purchase a company that has already been quite successful in providing exactly that was simply a good move at what appears to be the right time. Not too early so as to jump the gun before it saw the business model as viable; not too late so as to miss out and watch another media group buy it out.

$280 million is a large purchase, no doubt. We can only assume CBS plans to make it worthwhile – and keep Last.fm true to it’s roots while at the same time expanding on its potential.

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