Yahoo! is expanding its online music section by adding lyrics of nearly 400,000 songs.

The company says that with this move, it is hoping to cater to Web surfers looking for a more reliable alternative to Internet sites that publish lyrics without express permission from copyright owners.

Yahoo! says the free service, being unveiled today, is the Web's largest legally licensed database of lyrics.

Apparently, song lyrics available on other Web sites break the law by posting words without approval from publishers and writers.

Yahoo! says by contrast, it is offering the song lyrics in a legal manner. Under the licensing agreement, Yahoo! will share with copyright holders, revenue from the ads that will be displayed alongside the lyrics.

Moreover, the 400,000 song lyrics included in the database of Yahoo! will cover about 9,000 different artists, ranging from golden oldies, 'The Beatles' and 'Bob Dylan' to contemporary song artists like 'Radiohead' and 'Beyonce'. Besides, the songs will come from around 100 music publishers including: BMG Music, EMI Music, Sony/ATV Music, Universal Music, and Warner/Chappell Music.

While other sites claim to have more songs than Yahoo!'s database, Yahoo! is confident its lyrics library will become a hit mainly because there are no pop-ups and other hindrances typically found in the sites that offer lyrics without permission from copyright holders.

In a related development, Yahoo! and Gracenote, a digital media company, have launched an online lyrics service in an effort to combat unauthorized, rogue Web sites.

Craig Palmer, Chief Executive Officer of Gracenote, said that publishers embraced his company's plan to create a lyrics database because they felt lyrics are an untapped resource at a time when consumers are increasingly getting them through various rogue sites.

Ian Rogers, General Manager of Yahoo! Music, said they think they can build a really healthy business for lyrics, and that publishers stand to gain significantly from this new revenue stream. With the popularity of lyrics on the Internet, advertisers want to be there too.