| Acquired by | CBS |
| Price | $280M |
| Date | 5/07 |
| Terms | Cash |
| Website | last.fm |
| Blog | blog.last.fm |
| @lastfm | |
| Category | Games, Video and Entertainment |
| Phone | +44 (0) 20 7780 7080 |
| Employees | 70 |
| Founded | 1/02 |
| Series A, 5/06 Index Ventures | $5M |
Last.fm is a social networking company which revolves around its music recommendation engine. Recommendations are made by comparing user data to the rest of the Last.fm user community. Unlike competitor Pandora, Last.fm’s recommendations are not generated by matching similar musical attributes. However, its community driven engine gives it more potential to grow into media other than music. This is most likely a reason why media giant, CBS, acquired Last.fm for $280 million in May of 2007. Last.fm grew from very modest funding compared to its competitors Pandora, ilike, MyStrands and others.
Last.fm has extended its service to multiple online platforms with the “Last.fm in a box” application. This allows partners to offer their users free access to Last.fm’s streaming radio services direct from the partners Web site. Current partners include Bebo, Billboard.com, CBS Television Stations, CBS Affiliates, eMusic, Frengo, Gigya, iGoogle, and many others.
| Website | Last.fm |
| Stage | Live |
| Launch Date | July 12, 2007 |
| Tags | social-music |
Users “scrobble” the music they listen to on their ipod or computer through a downloaded application that records what they listen to. The scrobbler then sends this data to Last.fm’s servers. Last.fm compares user data to arrange personalized radio stations based upon your favorite music. The engine produces a station by grabbing music from other users’ whose taste is similar to your own. Additionally, users can have a radio station made around a single artist. These stations are created by recommending music that other users listen to in addition to your chosen artist. Additionally, Last.fm has largely incorporated social networking into its site. It has user profiles, events and widgets for your website. This is quite appropriate considering recommendations and stations are generated using communal data.
| Website | last.fm/widgets |
| Stage | Live |
| Launch Date | July 12, 2007 |
| Tags | social-music |
The Last.fm widget allows users access to personalized radio on sites other than Last.fm. These sites currently include MySpace, Facebook , LiveJournal, your blog and your Google Sidebar. On the Facebook application (shown), users can make personalized radio stations based upon the artists in their “favorite music” section. Users may also listen to friends’ personalized stations who have installed the application.
| Tags | iphone-app |
The last.fm iphone app aloows users to listen to free streaming radio, and discover new artists on their iphone.
Last.fm iphone app
