Yahoo Music grabs legal lyrics from Gracenote

Online shop and search tool Yahoo Music today announced that it was the first mainstream music site to get legal access to song lyrics provided by Gracenote. The new catalog lets visitors search the company's online store and general search pages by lyrics, rather than solely by song titles or artists -- including for artists whose songs aren't typically available to buy online, such as Radiohead. The decision by labels to license music was made in part based on the popularity (but frequently poor quality) of lyrics searches in general, according to the two companies.

"Song lyrics are continually among the top 10 searches performed on major search engines," says Gracenote CEO Craig Palmer, "though the results often provide consumers a frustrating experience filled with inconsistent and incomplete lyrics, and annoying pop-ups."

Users of Yahoo Music's main search, artist pages, and top song lists will be able to use the new lyrics feature today; the search engine giant also promises to add lyrics to its general search index and will boost its Yahoo Audio Search tool to help find songs and other audio clips from rival services or outside websites.