Looks like those of us who depend up on last.fm might get a more corporate version of the music listening service; It's just been bought by CBS $280 million in a bid to attract young audiences. Yippy!

From Reuters:

The London-based service has more than 15 million active users in over 200 countries, CBS said, and has earned praise for a system that recommends songs by tracking users' music-playing habits and linking them to other fans with similar tastes.

Within a year, CBS aims to explore applying Last.fm's technology to building new communities for online videos that will include its own archive of hit shows and videos not owned by the company, CBS digital chief Quincy Smith said in a phone interview.

He compared the deal with News Corp.'s acquisition of the popular MySpace online teen hangout, which set off a series of Internet acquisitions by traditional media companies.

"We're emulating what Fox did with MySpace," Smith said. "There are a lot of super-cool, whiz-bang applications they have that I can't wait to apply to other parts of the business."