Yahoo Inc. expanding online music collection

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo Inc. is expanding its online music section to include the lyrics of 400,000 songs, hoping to strike a chord with Web surfers looking for a more reliable alternative to Internet sites that publish the words without the permission of the copyright owners.
The Sunnyvale-based company is touting the free service unveiled Tuesday as the Web's largest legally licensed database of lyrics.
"It fills a huge, gaping hole out there," said Ian Rogers, general manager of Yahoo music.
Song lyrics have been available through scores of other Web sites for years, but most of those destinations are technically breaking the law by posting the words without the approval of the publishers and writers that own the rights.
What's more, many of these unauthorized lyric sites rely on contributions from outsiders, a communal approach that increases the chances for inaccuracies.
Yahoo's song lyrics, in contrast, are supposed to be the official versions. Under the licensing agreement, Yahoo will share with copyright holders the revenue from the ads that will be displayed alongside the lyrics.
The database and licensing deals were cobbled together over the past two years by Gracenote, a digital media management specialist. The Emeryville-based company, formerly known as CDDB, is best known for developing technology that automatically recognizes the tracks on compact discs -- a feature that is included in Apple Inc.'s widely used iTunes software.
The 400,000 song lyrics included in Yahoo's database span about 9,000 artists, ranging from old standbys such as The Beatles and Bob Dylan to more recent stars such as Radiohead and Beyonc & eacute;.
Nearly 100 music publishers are contributing song lyrics.
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