The Financial Benefits of Having a Song Featured in GTA VI
I find the concept of in-game radio stations fascinating. They’re an enjoyable aspect of open world video games and I have discovered several artists this way. They’re certainly a big deal as far as Rockstar Games are concerned, because the music selected for GTA VI is another important facet of the overall marketing campaign. So far, between two trailers and the sprawling extended look on Netflix, it has been determined that Tom Petty, the Pointer Sisters, Sexyy Red, Depeche Mode, Phil Collins, Birdman, Lil Wayne and the Bellamy Brothers are all part of the game soundtrack. That’s a very eclectic selection so far. Furthermore, there will be a 34 track album released on physical media (vinyl and CD) in conjunction with Atlantic Records.
I find the concept of in-game radio stations fascinating. They’re an enjoyable aspect of open world video games and I have discovered several artists this way. They’re certainly a big deal as far as Rockstar Games are concerned, because the music selected for GTA VI is another important facet of the overall marketing campaign. So far, between two trailers and the sprawling extended look on Netflix, it has been determined that Tom Petty, the Pointer Sisters, Sexyy Red, Depeche Mode, Phil Collins, Birdman, Lil Wayne and the Bellamy Brothers are all part of the game soundtrack. That’s a very eclectic selection so far. Furthermore, there will be a 34 track album released on physical media (vinyl and CD) in conjunction with Atlantic Records.
Potentially there are two quite substantial benefits to having a song featured in a Rockstar game such as GTA VI. The first is a direct payment which can vary in size. It can sometime be big with specific artists but more often it is relatively modest. The second is the potential for promotion, which given the scope of sales of this forthcoming game, can be enormous. For the initial direct financial payment, Rockstar needs to license both the composition and the particular recording. The money for these tends to be divided between songwriters, publishers and whoever owns the master recording, This is often a record label rather than the artist(s) themselves. Modern video game licensing is generally done as a one-off payment rather than a royalty system based on every copy of the game sold.
The details of this business practice came to public attention recently when singer/song writer Martyn Ware was offered $7,500 (as were the other three writers) for the song “Temptation” by his band Heaven 17. A total of $22,500 for the song writing payment. Industry analysts speculated that when the recording-rights owner were also compensated, the approximate total licensing cost could be around $45,000. Ware ultimately rejected the proposed deal because the contract apparently allowed Rockstar extensive additional use of the song outside of the game, without any further renumeration. So merely having a song playing on a radio station in GTA VI doesn't necessarily mean that the artist was paid a fortune by Rockstar. If they don't own their publishing or masters rights to begin with, their paycheque will not be that substantial.
However, the promotional value of having a song featured in the game is potentially much more significant. A noteworthy example is The Pointer Sisters’ 1986 track “Hot Together”, which was featured in the second trailer for the game. Prior to this, Luminate recorded roughly 3,900 global streams per week. In the week the trailer was released, the stream increased to 1.2 million. A week later it reached 2.9 million. Within eight weeks the song had accumulated almost 9.6 million streams, compared with only about 300,000 during the whole of 2024. The first GTA VI trailer produced a similar effect. Spotify reported that streams of Tom Petty's “Love Is a Long Road” increased by 36,979% after it was featured.
These streaming increases generate additional royalties completely outside the Rockstar licensing agreement. More importantly, it can create several secondary effects such as renewed and increased revenue income across the artist’s entire catalogue via Spotify/Apple Music/YouTube. Then there is increased followers across social media platforms, more internet searches and playlist appearances, as well as press coverage. One of the most notable and useful by-products of exposure in possibly the world biggest video game franchise is being discovered by a demographic who may have never previously been aware of the artist.
Another longer term aspect of this business arrangement between game publisher and artists, is that a song featured in a game can be played again and again. Gamers playing GTA VI might hear a song dozens of times while driving around the virtual world. They may even prolong “driving around” just to hear specific songs, as I have done before in similar games. Hence this is a really effective music-discovery mechanism and potentially a gift that keeps on giving. Hence, Martyn Ware’s objection regarding the licencing of his song, although understandable in the short term, does seem to overlook the long-term potential. Rockstar may well get permanent value from the song, while the artist is being asked to gamble that the indirect benefits will yield long term compensation. However, Rockstar Games have shown sound business acumen in the past, with regard to curating quality songs across multiple genres. I suspect for many artists, if they receive an offer of thing kind from Rockstar Games, most will happily embrace it.
In the meantime, here is the list of all the songs that we know so far to be featured in GTA VI.
Travis Scott — “RHYNO (prod. by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo)”
CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso, PinkPantheress, Fred again.., & Etienne de Crécy — “Sexy Magic”
Morgan Wallen — “Last Thing You Need”
Rauw Alejandro — “Macacoa 2000”
Keith Richards — “Bright Lights, Big City”
Yung Lean feat. Future & Metro Boomin — “That’s It”
Birdman feat. Lil Wayne — “Pop Bottles”
Sexyy Red & Tay Keith — “Pound Town”
Kodak Black — “Skrilla”
The Bellamy Brothers — “Let Your Love Flow”
Def Leppard — “Love Bites”
Depeche Mode — “People Are People”
Captain & Tennille — “But I Think It’s a Dream”
Prefab Sprout — “Cars and Girls”
!!! feat. Meah Pace — “Off the Grid”
Cliff Richard — “Devil Woman”
Chimbala & Omega — “Se Me Nota (Agárrame)”
Phil Collins — “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)”
Aluna & Jayda G — “Mine O’ Mine”
Elderbrook & Bob Moses — “Inner Light”
Jay Ferguson — “Thunder Island”
Zenglen — “Child Support”
Wang Chung — “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”
Tammy Wynette — “Talkin’ to Myself Again”
The Pointer Sisters — “Hot Together”
Tom Petty — “Love Is a Long Road”
I find the concept of in-game radio stations fascinating. They’re an enjoyable aspect of open world video games and I have discovered several artists this way. They’re certainly a big deal as far as Rockstar Games are concerned, because the music selected for GTA VI is another important facet of the overall marketing campaign. So far, between two trailers and the sprawling extended look on Netflix, it has been determined that Tom Petty, the Pointer Sisters, Sexyy Red, Depeche Mode, Phil Collins, Birdman, Lil Wayne and the Bellamy Brothers are all part of the game soundtrack. That’s a very eclectic selection so far. Furthermore, there will be a 34 track album released on physical media (vinyl and CD) in conjunction with Atlantic Records.