CBS has purchased last.fm for $280 million. Congratulations to the last.fm team, I’m sure they’ve put in a lot of work to last.fm, so they sure deserve a nice payout.

It leaves me concerned that last.fm will go downhill and turn into an uninteresting commercialised “cash cow”, but the last.fm blog post states:

This deal with CBS gives us a chance to really make Last.fm shine, and gives us more flexibility than other funding options would […..]. CBS understands the Last.fm vision, the importance we place on putting the listener in charge, the vibrant and vocal community, the obsession with music stats, and our determination to offer every song ever recorded. […..]
[….]
The Last.fm team stays put in London, we’ll grow the company some more here.
We will continue to execute our world domination plans – our focus is still music and the surrounding ecosystem. The founders (myself included) are still at the helm.

See also:

Post by Jeff Cummings (another last.fm user)

news.com: “What does CBS want with last.fm?”