TechCrunch reports that as of today a large proportion of songs on Yahoo Music (Yahoo claims 400,000) now contain lyrics. This is the result of a deal with Gracenote and is the first time lyrics have been legally published in this way online. I hope this represents the first step towards providing the level of information that is currently supplied on current CD releases. I really do want to know who played bass, who produced, who did the artwork, etc. Perhaps I’m something of a music geek, but it’s these details that provide the connections and facilitate personal journeys of discovery, which surely ultimately benefits the record companies in revenue. Though I’m not sure how Yahoo compile the chart, they have a top 10 most popular lyrics - unfortunately Morrissey and Scott Walker’s rightful places are occupied by Norah Jones and Justin Timberlake.

iTunes added a section for lyrics, but the only way it can be accessed is by selecting an individual music file, choosing Get Info from the File menu and clicking the relevant tab - unfortunately much too much trouble to bother doing. Let’s hope one day they’ll make it easier to view such details. What’s frustrating is that providing space and access for this information would appear to be a straightforward task. As with Last.fm’s user-generated concert listings, I’m sure a music metadata ecosystem would quickly appear to fill the gaps.

In related news, community metadata organisation MusicBrainz has just announced that Google has doubled its annual pledge to the the princely sum of $30,000.

Links: Yahoo Music’s Lyrics page, TechCrunch report, MusicBrainz announcement,

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