Maybe it was my post about how I preferred last.fm to Pandora which did it, but whatever it was, mainstream media have finally got round to snapping up music networking sites in their trawl of Web 2.0. These are the sites that allow users to discover new music via the tastest& listening habits of their friends, and also complete strangers who happen to have similar music collections. They also tend to boast all the standard Web 2.0 features such as forums, blogs and rating systems.

CBS has paid $280 million (£140 million) for the popular music community and as mad.co.uk point out, that makes last.fm the most expensive British Web 2.0 company to date. The sale should also, as Motley Fool note, mean that phones are ringing off the hook at other music platforms such as Pandora, iLike and (my favourite) MOG. Whilst last.fm was (according to Alexa) the most popular of all of these, that shouldn’t mean that they can’t also get a good price.

The Fool also point out that last.fm don’t currently sell music, but as I’ve explained elsewhere, it strikes me that sites such as last.fm are in the perfect position to utilise SEO to sell downloads - if they can only come to an agreement with the record companies. Now that major media are really taking an interest, you have to wonder how far off that will now be.

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