In a Wall Street Journal article today (paid registration required) about the growing competition of Apple's iTunes service, it is mentioned that Yahoo is expected to further expand their music presence online. The plan reportedly involves tying up with MusicNet to sell songs and offer subscriptions via a pay for music service.

The company already has laid the groundwork for its music service. It has a popular area of its site called Launch that features music videos and online radio stations, with advertisements for Napster and other music services. By the end of the month, though, Yahoo no longer will accept ads within Launch from rivals in the music market, cutting off a potential source of visitor traffic to these other sites, a person familiar with the matter says. (This person says other parts of Yahoo may still sell ads to rival music sites.)

A Yahoo spokeswoman had little to say on the report, except that they are "developing new subscription and transaction businesses to provide the most comprehensive music experience for our consumers."

[First reported at PaidContent.org]