'GTA IV' features 200 plus song soundtrack

The soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto IV contains more than 200 songs and will allow gamers to "tag" songs to purchase later online, Reuters reports.

Ivan Pavlovich, music supervisor for Rockstar Games, spent 18 months assembling the soundtrack to the crime game, contacting more than 2,000 rights holders in the process.

Pavlovich said: "We've really paid attention to what goes on in New York City and I think we really captured the music of the entire city, from different ethnic and social groups to different tastes of music."

Music is split between several radio stations which users can scroll through while driving around the fictional Liberty City.

Well-known artists including The Who, Kanye West, David Bowie and Queen are complemented by more obscure acts such as the Skatt Bros and Jean Michel Jarre.

Rockstar reportedly paid as much as $5,000 per track and another $5,000 to secure the master recordings. It is thought that the game's soundtrack budget is more than $2 million.

Grand Theft Auto IV includes a tagging feature that picks out songs from the soundtrack and allows gamers to later purchase the tracks from Amazon.

Cynthia Sexton, senior VP of strategic marketing and licensing for EMI, said: "It's changed from video games as a great way to expose our artists to where music is integral to the game and they're actually willing to compensate us and our artists.

Grand Theft Auto IV is released today on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Several UK retailers, including supermarket chain Asda, reportedly broke the release date for the game, putting it on shelves ahead of schedule.