Radio and the soundtrack

Radio is one of the load-bearing walls of a Grand Theft Auto game. It's how the world talks, it's where a lot of the satire lands, and it's the reason people can still hum a station from a game they last played a decade ago.

For most of the run-up Rockstar announced nothing here. That changed in October. Six stations now have names and hosts, there's an original album with a release date, and Justice's score has its own title and its own release. A full tracklist still hasn't been published.

Six stations so far

On 8 October Rockstar named the first six: Flash FM, Cocoteo, Afro Bank FM, The Chamber, Dirty South Classics and Back Country. The hosts include Robyn, Bad Bunny, Burna Boy, Trick Daddy, and Kerry King and Tom Araya of Slayer. For the first time in the series the radio also keeps playing on foot, through headphones on the phone. The line-up, the hosts and the history are all on the radio stations page, so we won't repeat them here.

The Album and Justice's score

*Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album* is thirty-four original tracks, out on 19 November, the same day as the game. Rockstar's music page lists singles from Yung Lean with Future and Metro Boomin, Travis Scott, Morgan Wallen, Fuerza Regida, Rauw Alejandro, Cardi B and Keith Richards. The same page credits Justice as the game's original score composers. There's more detail on The Album page.

On 29 October Rockstar's Newswire made the score its own record: Grand Theft Auto VI: Original Score by Justice. Rockstar calls it adaptive, with compositions "dynamically tuned to the different ways players engage", so the music shifts with what you're doing. Flower in a Hurricane was its first single, and the second, Pusher featuring Gesaffelstein, came out the same day. Our news piece has the rest.

It's out on 11 December, about three weeks after the game, on streaming, a double CD and triple vinyl. Because Music, one of the labels putting it out, says it's thirty tracks plus some digital bonus tracks. Rough Trade has the clear triple vinyl at $59.99 for indie shops, the black one at $54.99 and the double CD at $21.99. Don't mix it up with The Album, which is the separate record of songs by other artists.

That settles a question this page used to list as open. Rockstar has commissioned original music, and a lot of it. It sits beside the licensed radio, and it doesn't replace it.

There's one rumour attached to all this. A leaker, Has It Leaked, claimed on X on 19 October that Rockstar first pitched Daft Punk a comeback for the game and that Justice were the second choice. Nobody else has backed it up, and it's a rumour until somebody does.

Songs confirmed from official material

Another fourteen or so have been identified across the Extended Look. That's sanctioned footage, not a leak, and it brings the confirmed total to around twenty.

Trailer music isn't necessarily radio music. Rockstar has used tracks in marketing that never made it into the game, and it's happened the other way round too. So treat the licensed songs as confirmed to exist in Rockstar's licensing, and don't assume they're in a station's rotation. Flower in a Hurricane and Pusher are a different case. They're original Justice singles written for the game. Rockstar's music page put Flower in a Hurricane with The Album in October, and the score announcement calls it the score's first single, so it may well turn up on both.

What GTA V shipped with

Grand Theft Auto V launched with over 240 licensed songs across 17 stations, and Grand Theft Auto Online eventually pushed the library past 750. Six stations is plainly a first wave, and coverage of the announcement points to classic rock and talk radio still to come. For a game set in a city with the musical history Miami has, matching Grand Theft Auto V should be the floor. The ceiling's a lot higher.

The music business is in the cast

This is where Grand Theft Auto 6 really parts ways with the older games. Dre'Quan Priest is a promoter, Boobie Ike owns the studio, and Real Dimez are an act with a name and a place in the business network.

Earlier games kept the music industry on the radio and in the jokes. This one has written it into the plot. See the music business is in the plot.

What isn't known

We don't know how many stations ship in total, or what the full licensed tracklist is. It's not clear which songs from The Album you'll hear on the in-game radio and which only turn up in the cutscenes. Justice have the whole score, but we don't know how the adaptive side works in play, which record Flower in a Hurricane finally sits on, or why one listing shows fifty entries for a thirty-track score. Several artists have talked publicly about working with Rockstar. Unless Rockstar lists them, none of that's a confirmed placement, and this page won't list it as one.