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First user-created radio station for GTA IV appears
10:58 PM on 04.27.2008, Nick Chester 27 comments

First user-created radio station for GTA IV appears photo
     Music

Attention! Destructoid community member PaulMorel (also known as Evan Merz, the fellow behind the Wii Drum Kit for Windows) has alerted us to his latest project -- an mp3 of a custom indie radio station designed specifically with Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV in mind.

"Over the last month I have scoured the internet for indie rock that is both perfect for GTA games and by unsigned indie rock acts," he writes us. "The list of tunes that I came up with is amazing. I found an incredible wealth of talent and assembled a terrific indie rock radio station."

Evan takes the idea of a simple playlist even further, actually adding dialogue for a DJ that has references to locations in the virtual world of Liberty City. The entire set clocks in at around an hour, and is an impressive display of creativity and dedication. You can download the entire mp3 before the game even hits shelves by heading over to Evan's blog, This Is Not A Label. 


Next page: More Grand Theft Auto stories




Darkjad's Avatar
Darkjad at 04/27/2008 23:06
Can you import radio stations? Or do you basically just turn on the playlist through your Guide (and XMB if that functionality is in), and pause when appropriate?

Either way, awesome stuff.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 04/27/2008 23:08
This is a brilliant idea, and I'm now demanding that the staff do one of these as well with the tracks from Dtoid Radio. Obey my demands!
Cheeburga's Avatar
Cheeburga at 04/27/2008 23:09
Awesome.
I wonder if I can get Podtoid on there.
slee's Avatar
slee at 04/27/2008 23:10
Wow I was skyptical as I am a bit of a music snob ala Rob in High Fedelity But I have to say Nice stuff!! It would be awesome if you could have your own user created radio station fully enabled in the game now that would be sweet!!!
DarkTravesty's Avatar
DarkTravesty at 04/27/2008 23:11
@ Y0j1mb0 : no sadly. 360 only but you need to use the guide so it ends up playing over cell phone calls, dialog and such. it doesn't natively support it.
Darkjad's Avatar
Darkjad at 04/27/2008 23:17
Damn, sort of sucks that it can't figure out what tunes your 360 is playing then shut them off for phone calls. Oh well, you can't have everything :D

Downloading now.
kaz's Avatar
kaz at 04/27/2008 23:27
That sucks that it doesn't do custom soundtracks like San Andreas did.(CD player in the car if memory serves correctly) I'm sure Rockstar has included a ton of great tracks, but eventually i'm going to want to listen to my music. Guess I'll have to open the guide and turn it off everytime the phone rings/cut scene etc.... :(
Joseph Leray's Avatar
Joseph Leray at 04/27/2008 23:32
That's a pretty cool idea, and something I wouldn't have considered. I don't particularly like the Libertines ... but the idea of interacting with GTAIV in a totally different way, like Evan has done, is *really* interesting. It's like some sort of meta-interaction.
JohnnyWadd's Avatar
JohnnyWadd at 04/27/2008 23:42
Very cool idea, i can see alot more people doing this in the future.
m3ds's Avatar
m3ds at 04/28/2008 00:03
I do agree that it is annoying to see that you can only do this through the dashboard but it'll be great for just bumming around town. And who knows, if enough people start doing this maybe Rock Star will update the game and allow custom tracks that work like the other radio stations.
RskimB's Avatar
RskimB at 04/28/2008 00:09
sweet i'm checking it right now
NightDehumidifier's Avatar
NightDehumidifier at 04/28/2008 00:24
Maybe someone can manipulate GTA to make it fun.
-PL-'s Avatar
-PL- at 04/28/2008 00:31
You're so iconoclastic.
manasteel88's Avatar
manasteel88 at 04/28/2008 00:54
great now all i have to do is get the game
Knives's Avatar
Knives at 04/28/2008 02:20
Listening to it, I'm liking it so far
Rainbowblack's Avatar
Rainbowblack at 04/28/2008 03:01
QUESTION!!

Custom soundtracks. Do we have to build them song by song or can we create a playlist on our PC right now and use it. if so, then this is going to be fun

there will be my casual driving to location playlist and my 5 star rating playlist lol
DJDuffy 's Avatar
DJDuffy at 04/28/2008 03:05
geez that is an amazing piece of work for something that may or maynot even make it to the game ever. wow.
Xbudz's Avatar
Xbudz at 04/28/2008 03:19


Thank goodness for my free launch day bonus remote control! Perfect for quick music pausing, or changing for that matter! No need to bring up the guide.
Rainbowblack's Avatar
Rainbowblack at 04/28/2008 03:26
Xbuds, great idea!! until now i only used mine for DVD playback
Orionsaint's Avatar
Orionsaint at 04/28/2008 03:30
Someone at Rockstar was watching the film, Behind Enemy Lines, when designing GTAIV.



bunnyrabbit2's Avatar
bunnyrabbit2 at 04/28/2008 04:51
Wow, I have never noticed that before.

Also, good music is good.

@RainbowBlack, you can make playlists on the xbox dashboard and switch between them. I have my oblivion playlist (classical) my racing playlist (mix of stuff) and now my GTA (this track)
GeneralWong's Avatar
GeneralWong at 04/28/2008 05:24
I think you can import Music into GTA just like you could import it into Saints Row. It just appeared as a MP3 player though and i dont think it would pause when you would get out the car but im not sure about phone calls. This is all on Saints Row though. Would be cool content if GTA released new Stations on Marketplace.
badoor's Avatar
badoor at 04/28/2008 07:45
If Anyone Interested I did a quick .CUE File, if you have a CUE file splitter program Just copy the following text in a .txt file then change the format to .cue:

TITLE "Liberty City Independant"
PERFORMER "Evan Merz and Others"
FILE "thisisnotalabel-WLCI.mp3" MP3
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Louis Party"
PERFORMER "The Triggers"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "5th and Hope"
PERFORMER "The Rooftops"
INDEX 01 03:15:00
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Venus"
PERFORMER "We Are The Fury"
INDEX 01 05:55:00
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Nobody Calls it the Big Apple"
PERFORMER "The Bombers"
INDEX 01 09:52:00
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "Bouquet Mines"
PERFORMER "Annabel"
INDEX 01 14:21:00
TRACK 06 AUDIO
TITLE "Who Are You Now"
PERFORMER "Theeth of Mammals"
INDEX 01 18:31:00
TRACK 07 AUDIO
TITLE "Bad Memories Burn"
PERFORMER "The Libertines"
INDEX 01 24:14:00
TRACK 08 AUDIO
TITLE "Bear in the Attic"
PERFORMER "Kingsfoil"
INDEX 01 29:31:00
TRACK 09 AUDIO
TITLE "Killer of the Kent County Kids"
PERFORMER "The Turnbull ACs"
INDEX 01 34:02:00
TRACK 10 AUDIO
TITLE "Like You"
PERFORMER "Stem"
INDEX 01 37:52:00
TRACK 11 AUDIO
TITLE "Numb on a Monday"
PERFORMER "The Vinyltones"
INDEX 01 42:53:00
TRACK 12 AUDIO
TITLE "Your Voice is Not an Instrument"
PERFORMER "Aaralyn"
INDEX 01 45:49:00
TRACK 13 AUDIO
TITLE "Rock Bottom Remix"
PERFORMER "Beware Fashionable Women"
INDEX 01 50:10:00
TRACK 14 AUDIO
TITLE "I'll Be The DJ"
PERFORMER "Beware Fashionable Women"
INDEX 01 53:28:00
PaulMorel's Avatar
PaulMorel at 04/28/2008 08:14
Thanks for all the nice comments guys.

I'll be pretty pissed if GTAIV (on the consoles) doesn't support the mp3 channel, like the PC versions of the GTA games. That was my one big concern going into this project. I mean, isn't that a feature that we expect MOST games to support at this point? Or at least car-oriented games? I mean for chrissakes, Excite Truck supported custom soundtracks! Does anyone have any official word on whether or not this is supported in-game?

Also, all the bands on this are 100% unsigned independent acts. So if you like any of them, please go to their myspace and/or website and buy a track. They are all f-ing amazing, and deserve support from us.
Nick Chester's Avatar
Nick Chester at 04/28/2008 09:28
@ PaulMorel:

Bad news is I don't believe it does. I'm waiting to get my copies (for both PS3 and 360), so I'll be able to give you a definitive answer later today, hopefully.
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