March 29^th, 2008 (9:54am) - Rockstar and Amazon.com have teamed up to provide a unique distribution model for music sales. Leveraging a technology named, ZiT, players can utilize the mobile phone interface in Grand Theft Auto IV to mark a song a they hear playing on the game’s sound track, the player will then receive a text message on their phone alerting them to who the artist is and the song title. If the player is also a member of the Rockstar Games Social Club they will also receive an email with a direct link to purchase the song, in DRM-free MP3 format, from Amazon.com.

"Music has long played an integral part of the game playing experience," said Ronn Werre, EVP, EMI Music’s Sales, Licensing and Synchronization unit. "We think giving players the ability to identify and buy their favorite tracks from Grand Theft Auto IV’s popular radio stations is a great new music discovery tool for fans and an innovative new revenue stream for artists."

Rockstar has high hopes that the download service, MTV Games’ Rock Band has resulted in 6 million downloads at about $2 per download, resulting in a significant secondary income stream for the game publisher.

Rockstar’s song list tops out at over 150 songs, some exclusive to the game from such artists as Nas and The Greenskeepers.