Linkage: CBS snaps Last.fm, Swayzak, Fly Life, iTunes Plus

- CBS has acquired the UK-based social networking site Last.fm for USD $280 million in an all-cash deal. According to TechCrunch the deal sees Last.fm’s management team staying in place and the site maintaining a separate identity. Yeah, right.

- Village Voice's Tricia Romano writes her last Fly Life column ever. As she puts it: "I'm ending it the way I started. I'd need three columns to do everyone justice, but I don't have that. Party over: out of time". Romano is becoming a more-generalist staff writer at the popular NYC paper.

- Apple launched iTunes Plus yesterday. Now you can buy DRM-free music encoded at (well..) 256 kbps AAC for just USD $1.29 per song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog in the same versions, (128 kbps AAC with DRM) at the same price of USD $.99 per song, alongside the higher quality iTunes Plus versions when available.

- The UK-based duo Swayzak will finally release their new album, Some Other Country, August 28 via !K7.