Last.fm bought by CBS

Rob Webb — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:24:00 +0000

The last time I posted about Last.fm and Pandora, they were worried about being run out of business by a rising RIAA fee structure. Last.fm and Pandora are certainly still vulnerable to such rate hikes, but it doesn’t seem to be a big worry to CBS, who reportedly is purchasing Last.fm for $280m. I recently started using Pandora because I think the music stream seems to be a bit more consistent – Last.fm cuts out for me fairly consistently. However, it seems that social network side of Last.fm was the big factor in the price. Pandora, on the other hand, has a far less robust social aspect to their service but has many more device options.

Last.fm built their network in a very intelligent manner – the network is a sidenote to a very effective service. Last.fm works great for anyone who comes to use it…and by joining the network and tuning your “station” to your likes and dislikes the service only gets better. It is the second step that built huge value for the service.

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Last.fm bought by CBS