last.fm sold to CBS for £140m

[Koant]

Social music site Last.fm has been bought by US media giant CBS Corporation for $280m (£140m), the largest-ever UK Web 2.0 acquisition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6701863.stm

Well, it had to happen I suppose, although I thought they had a working business model and were independent enough to resist temptation.
What's going to happen to the community and the open-source aspect of it all, I wonder. I'm worried that the linux player might not be available at the next upgrade.

Congratulations to the founders though, that's a very nice amount of money.

Edited to add: http://blog.last.fm/2007/05/30/lastfm-acquired-by-cbs

[CaledonianGonzo]

I wonder if CBS will then start trawling profiles to look for people who're listening to leaked releases and act accordingly.

[SOTS]

Oh, bloody great. The headline may as well be "Last.fm to go shit."

Or at least a little bit shitter.

[NoSleep]

I wonder if CBS will then start trawling profiles to look for people who're listening to leaked releases and act accordingly.

They could do that without purchasing it. And torrent sites are more likely indicators than seeing the name of a track on an individual's profile. Apparently advance copies of new releases are sent to the press with specific watermarks embedded in the audio content of individual copies for each journalist, to ensure they can pinpoint any leaks that may occur.

Re: The purchase: Shit!

[P K Duck]

Well, YouTube had an immediate purge when it got bought by a corporation big enough to sue, so this may well see the end of the oddities that sometimes pop up now and again.

[Neil]

Ah, fuck. 

Good to see Russ and the rest will be raking it in, they deserve to, but damn, I had thought they were going to resists this kind of thing.  I really really hope the site doens't turn to shit now.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

If it's any consolation, these things on the internet tend to be cyclical, apart from perhaps the all-consuming Google empitre. But there's nothing stopping an even better site emerging that takes the ideas behind last.fm to another level (or an even more pointless one, depending on your views). The facebook to myspace, so to speak.

[quadraspazzed]

Ah for fucks sake.

[Joy Nktonga]

Terrible news. I'd guess it's going to go all corporate and shite with loads of restrictions and CBS ads and the like. They'd better not be fucking cheeky enough to carry on asking for subs. As much as I love the extras gained from paying there's no way I'd pay up to a huge corp for those services. To me the donations have been just that: donations to help cover the costs with a few little tit-bits given to us as a thanks.

Good luck to the Last.fm crew and, as Neil said, you've earned that money. Hope you're already on plan to launch something similar that's bigger and better.

[Deadman97]

One hundred and forty million pounds.

I've been subscribing for ages, I think I deserve a piece of that.

(Oooh can I be first to call it LA$$$$T.FM please?)

[actwithoutwords]

Shit, just noticed this thread. That is a pain in the arse.
It's difficult to say why I feel so uncomfortable about it. All the data is public anyway, apart from the link to IP addresses. But given the amount of money CBS have paid for it, they are going to want to make that back, and I somehow doubt that last.fm is creating that type of revenue at the moment, or else they wouldn't have had to sell in the first place. I'm not particularly looking forward to finding out how they are going to make that money. Last.fm are understandably delighted with themselves at the moment, but a large corporation has them by the balls now, and how long is it before they find themselves forced to make 'compromises' that they hadn't foreseen?

[Jack Shaftoe]

1. Congratulations to the guys behind last.fm.
2. I've now cancelled my account, what with not wanting CBS to know every last detail of my interior life and everything.

[glitch]

Ah, fuck. 

Good to see Russ and the rest will be raking it in, they deserve to, but damn, I had thought they were going to resists this kind of thing.  I really really hope the site doens't turn to shit now.

I'm got pretty much the same opinion. It depends how CBS handle the situation - the right way would be to let it continue as normal, but swap out all the Amazon referrals etc.

I doubt they'll do that though. I also fear it'll go far too American-centric.

However, the history of Audioscrobbler and last.fm shows that the business model does kinda work, so somebody could try and create their own to keep independent.

[NoSleep]

Looks like they could get more than $280 according to this source. They were asking $450 to start with and if targets are met then they will get more. Seems they will be adding video to the site and "sponsored" music channels. Use Firefox and get the AdBlock plugin and it might seem like nothing's happened for a little bit longer.

[Analrapist]

Oh cunts. Waking up and reading this isn't the start to the day I wanted!

[lactating man nips]

This news makes me very depressed.

[Funcrusher]

I don't know anything about how these kind of sales work- would the sellers have to undertake not to do something else similar? Presumably they could set up a totally amazing 'second to lastFM' whilst never having to work again on that kind of sum of money.

[Analrapist]

Are the old owners still going to run the site? I don't want it to leave east London!

[Uncle TechTip]

I don't know anything about how these kind of sales work- would the sellers have to undertake not to do something else similar? Presumably they could set up a totally amazing 'second to lastFM' whilst never having to work again on that kind of sum of money.

Normally deals like this mean the founders become employees of the parent co., as per Youtube. No doubt much of the 140m is in share options or other such intangibles which the founders will not be able to claim unless they continue working.

[quadraspazzed]

HELP!

Somehow I managed to change my default language into (I think) Spanish. Can someone hlep me change it back to English. I understand fuck all Spanish and it's a mess of gobbledygook to me.

Gracias amigos!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Gracias amigos!

That means 'Death to children', if you weren't aware.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Use a page translation thingy to change it from Espagbol into Ingerlish just so you can find the right button.

[JesusAndYourBush]

HELP!

Somehow I managed to change my default language into (I think) Spanish. Can someone hlep me change it back to English. I understand fuck all Spanish and it's a mess of gobbledygook to me.

Gracias amigos!

I'd help you but I just had a look through my last fm user settings and couldn't even find a language setting.

[Murdo]

Mrs Murdo did this with hers but it was Japanese she changed it too. I think the option is at the very bottom of the page where all the legal/copyright gubbins is? I'm in work so I can't look at it just now, sorry.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

It's at the bottom of your page, to the right.



Well, that's where it is on mine anyway...

[biniput]

No forieger can buy ANY US newspaper, TV station or radio station and yet they can buy other peoples.  That HAS to stop.

[quadraspazzed]

It's at the bottom of your page, to the right.

Cheers bud, all better now!