Yahoo Inc. is hoping its acquisition of music provider Musicmatch Inc. will attract even more visitors. Yahoo bought Musicmatch for $160 million in a bid to capture the growing audience of music consumers who buy online. The all-cash deal will enable Yahoo to compete against current music-selling big boys Apple Computer, Real Networks and Napster in the growing industry of digital music. Now that the iPod is standard issue among most teens and young adults the market for digital music is booming. San Diego-based Musicmatch provides Yahoo with an online music store selling songs for 99 cents a piece as well as a software program that manages digital music for desktops. Both of these features are two of the key ingredients that put Apple at the top of the digital music selling business.

The Musicmatch digital jukebox includes over 700,000 songs. In addition to the per song charge, Musicmatch also offers a subscription feature that lets consumers listen to any song in the library on the Internet. Right now, Yahoo offers an online radio service. They are hoping to double their music audience after the completion of the Musicmatch deal later this year. Musicmatch has around 170 employees. The company has not said what the fate of the workers will be.

Yahoo shares gained a slight boost on the Nasdaq Stock Market today after the news was announced.