The copyright society controls 1.1 million Japanese-registered songs and 5 million overseas-registered songs -- many of which will soon be offered on Yahoo! Japan.

Other reports say that the songs will be encoded to prevent copying, but this could not be confirmed with the portal. Yahoo! Japan said that over 90 percent of Japanese web users visit one its sites at least once a month.

It is unlikely that new and popular releases will be made available, and that the move by JASRAC is a means of generating income from older songs, say industry observers. The giveaway of songs as a method of driving traffic to a Web portal marks another step made by the music industry to generate income in the midst of a multi-year sales slump.