BigShinyThing

We’ve said before that last.fm and similar (but not as good) music recommendation sites are the future of music retail. Well it appears that CBS agrees with us – they’ve just forked out £140m for last.fm.

For those who have just joined us, last.fm was founded in the UK five years ago and it now has more than 15 million active users. It allows users to connect with other listeners with similar music tastes, to custom-build their own radio stations and to watch music video-clips. What we love about the site is that it invites music fans to stumble upon new music and new genres (New Weird America anyone?).

Unlike a lot of media groups who seem to be frantically trying to build their social networking sites (a glance at the marketing press shows that it’s the buzzword du jour), CBS has recognised that the best aproach is to buy one ready-made.

The firm’s president and CEO Leslie Moonves told the BBC: “Last.fm is one of the fastest growing online communities out there.” He said Last.fm’s strength in building communities around music and syndicating content was “central to CBS”. He added: “Their demographics also play perfectly to CBS’s goal to attract younger viewers and listeners across our businesses.”

As part of the deal, Last.fm’s managing team will remain in place and the site will maintain its own separate identity. Here’s hoping …