Rockstar switching GTA IV music partnership from Amazon to iTunes

One of the most innovative features of "Grand Theft Auto IV" when it launched last year was the ability to buy any one of the 150-plus songs on Liberty City's 19 radio stations via the in-gam "Zit" service and a partnership with Amazon.com's MP3 store.

That service isn't going anywhere with the upcoming "GTA IV" downloadable episode "The Lost and the Damned," which updates five the game's virtual radio stations with new tracks from artists including Busta Rhymes and Funkmaster Flex. But the Amazon.com partnership is.

About 10 months after the deal started, Rockstar is ditching Amazon.com and switching to iTunes. The update to the music download service, which ties into the Rockstar Social website, will come when "The Lost and the Damned" launches next week.

No official word yet on the reasons, but when I interviewed "GTA IV's" soundtrack supervisor Ivan Pavlovich last year, he said one of the reasons Rockstar picked Amazon was they wanted downloaded songs to be available without DRM, so they wouldn't be restricted to a certain device.

Apple, of course, recently decided to make the entire iTunes library DRM-free, eliminating that concern. And Amazon.com's MP3 store, which was only about half a year old and growing fast when Rockstar struck its deal last year, hasn't become very big. It's still fighting with eMusic, Napster, Rhapsody etc. for the scraps left beyond iTunes 90%-plus market domination.

Given all that, it's perhaps no surprise Rockstar is making the switch. Since many more "GTA IV" players are used to iTunes, more music will likely be sold, earning additional commissions for Rockstar and, probably more importantly, making the labels and artists who want to sell more tracks happier.

It's definitely a blow, however, for Amazon, for whom the Rockstar partnership was a big promotional opportunity and selling point last year -- one of the very few unique features of its MP3 store.

It's also interesting to see Rockstar adding new music to "GTA IV" via DLC, something I doubt few players were expecting for their $20. It will probably be a while until we see game soundtracks dynamically updated, but adding fresh songs via DLC seens kuje a great way to keep the game world alive and vibrant, not to mention a great way for labels to promote new stuff.