Hot on the heels of the Rockstar Games Social Club announcement comes further news of its functionality. Rockstar Games has joined forces with Amazon to provide a music download service for the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack.
Any currently playing track in the game can be ‘marked’ for future reference, by means of the personal assistant / mobile phone gadget in Niko’s possession. As we have highlighted previously, the mobile phone will be one of the main ways of keeping contacts and receiving missions in the game. A dial at any time to the number ‘ZIT-555-0100’ will return the title of the track that is currently playing. Users registered in the Social Club network will also receive a link to download the track, free of DRM protection, from Amazon.com.
Never failing to secure smashing soundtracks for their games, Rockstar has clearly been able to pitch an online music store concept to its recording label partners. Generating cash flow after the initial purchase of the game in this manner definitely constitutes “an innovative new revenue stream for artists.” (Ronn Werre from EMI Music) We expect there will also be a soundtrack CD sold separately, as has been the case with previous Grand Theft Auto titles.
Source: Yahoo!