GTA 4 Music: Grand Theft Auto IV Hustles Songs Through Amazon MP3 Store

Players of Grand Theft Auto IV can buy songs they hear within the game from the Amazon MP3 store.

Calling ZIT-555-0100 on your in-game cellphone tags whatever song you’re listening to on one of the game’s 16 radio stations. Later, when you log in to Rockstar Games’ new social network, you’ll be able to preview,  buy and download tagged songs in the 256-Kbps, DRM-free MP3 format for 99 cents each or less.

The game, which was released Tuesday and is expected to sell 9 million copies at launch, comes with 200 songs that play on in-game radio stations.
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Calling ZIT-555-0100 on your in-game cellphone tags whatever song you’re listening to on one of the game’s 16 radio stations. Later, when you log in to Rockstar Games’ new social network, you’ll be able to preview,  buy and download tagged songs in the 256-Kbps, DRM-free MP3 format for 99 cents each or less.

The game, which was released Tuesday and is expected to sell 9 million copies at launch, comes with 200 songs that play on in-game radio stations.

If you’d rather just cut to the chase and pick up 16 songs from the game directly, Amazon MP3 offers a full compilation called The Music of Grand Theft Auto, with music from The Rapture, Busta Rhymes, Nas, Bob Marley, Joe Walsh and others.

The major labels see Amazon MP3 as a way to loosen Apple’s control over paid downloads, which is why they allow Amazon to offer more DRM-free music than iTunes can. By targeting Grand Theft Auto IV players, the labels who signed on to this deal have given Amazon MP3 something else that iTunes lacks.

If the Rockstar/Amazon partnership looks like it’s working, we could see videogames turn into a much wider platform for music purchasing. Labels already view videogames as one of the most valuable promotional platforms around, so it only makes sense to complete the circle, allowing gamers to pay in order to keep the music and play it on other platforms.

GTA 4 Music: Grand Theft Auto IV Hustles Songs Through Amazon MP3 Store. Players of Grand Theft Auto IV can buy songs they hear within the game from the Amazon MP3 store.

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