GTA 6 Soundtrack and Radio Stations: The Creator Copyright Guide

The GTA 6 soundtrack is now half-public: Rockstar announced Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album on September 17, 2026 — 34 original songs written for the game, released through Atlantic Records on launch day, November 19, 2026. For creators that is two things at once: one of the biggest search topics of the next three months, and the single largest copyright risk sitting inside your gameplay footage.

This guide separates what Rockstar has actually confirmed from what is still a leak, then shows you the recording setup that keeps the radio from costing you a monetized video.

What is confirmed about the GTA 6 soundtrack

There are two separate music layers in a GTA game, and mixing them up is the fastest way to get your video fact-checked in the comments:

• The original album — Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album, 34 songs created exclusively for the game, out digitally on November 19, 2026 via Atlantic Records. A double-vinyl pressing (transparent magenta with blue splatter) follows on November 20 at $49.98.
• Licensed catalogue music — existing songs Rockstar has licensed for the in-game radio. Around 20 of these have been identified from the trailers and the Extended Look, including tracks by Tom Petty, Def Leppard, Depeche Mode and Phil Collins.

Six album singles have been released so far. The remaining 28 tracks stay sealed: Rockstar is holding the complete tracklist until launch day.

Artist	Track	Note
Yung Lean	That’s It	feat. Future & Metro Boomin
Travis Scott	RHYNO	produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso, PinkPantheress, Fred again.., Etienne de Crécy	Sexy Magic	four-way collaboration
Morgan Wallen	Last Thing You Need	the country lane of the album
Rauw Alejandro	Macacoa 2000	Latin / reggaeton
Keith Richards	Bright Lights, Big City	blues cover

The trailer songs are confirmed too, because they appeared in official Rockstar marketing: Tom Petty’s “Love is a Long Road” from Trailer 1, and from Trailer 2 “Hot Together” (The Pointer Sisters), “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” (Wang Chung), “Thunder Island” (Jay Ferguson), “Talkin’ To Myself Again” (Tammy Wynette), “Child Support” (Zenglen) and “I Love Rock N Roll” (Joan Jett).

GTA 6 radio stations: confirmed vs. leaked

Here is where most videos on this topic get it wrong. Rockstar has not published a GTA 6 radio station list. V-Rock is the only station name that has surfaced in official material. Everything else — the roughly fourteen station names circulating, including Kaleidoscope FM and Emotion 98.3 — comes from leaks and datamining, not from Rockstar.

If you are building news content, label it that way on screen. A “CONFIRMED / LEAKED” badge in the corner of your video costs you nothing, and it is the difference between a channel people still trust after launch and one that gets dunked on in somebody else’s correction video. The same discipline applies to every news upload — see how we handle it in the GTA 6 gameplay features breakdown.

Why the GTA 6 soundtrack is a copyright problem on YouTube

Rockstar does not own most of the music in its own radio stations. The licensed masters belong to the labels and publishers behind each song, and those rightsholders register their catalogues with YouTube’s Content ID system. Content ID does not know or care that a song reached YouTube through a video game — it matches the audio fingerprint and files the claim automatically.

That means the licence Rockstar paid for inside the game does not transfer to your upload. And per YouTube’s own documentation, a claimed video “may have restrictions on where the video is viewable or whether it can be monetized” — so in practice: the claimant takes your ad revenue, your video is blocked in some countries, or both.

The album tracks are the sharper edge of this. They are commercial Atlantic Records releases, which means they will almost certainly sit in Content ID from day one — the same 34 songs that make the GTA 6 soundtrack such a draw are the ones most likely to flag your footage.

The record-safe setup to build before November 19

You do not have to choose between clean audio and a watchable video. You just have to decide in advance, because fixing it after upload always costs you something. Lock your GTA 6 recording settings first — console clip limits, capture resolution and YouTube’s upload bitrates — then layer these audio rules on top.

Do this

• Turn the in-game radio off for guide and tutorial footage. Every GTA game lets you set the radio to off from the station wheel. Mission walkthroughs, money guides and map videos lose nothing without it.
• Split your audio in OBS if you record on PC. Game audio on one track, mic on another, so you can drop or duck the game bed in editing instead of re-recording the session.
• Record a silent b-roll pass. Drive the scenic route with the radio off and bank 10–15 minutes of clean driving footage. It becomes the background for every talking-head and news video you make for the next year.
• Bring your own music bed. Synthwave and 80s-style royalty-free tracks sit perfectly against Vice City visuals, and nothing claims them.
• Keep the radio on only where it is the point. A dedicated “every song on V-Rock” video is going to be claimed, so plan it as an unmonetized traffic play rather than a revenue video.

Don’t do this

• Don’t assume “it’s game audio” protects you. Content ID matches the song, not the source.
• Don’t pitch-shift or speed up a track to dodge detection. It often still matches, and it makes your video sound broken.
• Don’t upload album tracks as standalone “full soundtrack” videos. That is a reupload of a commercial release.
• Don’t record a two-hour launch-night session with the radio blasting and hope for the best. One claim can cover the whole upload.

If a video gets claimed: your three options

YouTube Studio gives you three ways to remove claimed content from a video that is already live. One warning first: since June 2025, these edits cannot be reverted once saved, so make the call before you confirm.

Option	What it does	Best for
Trim out segment	Cuts the claimed section out of the video entirely	One song over a short clip you can afford to lose
Replace song	Swaps the claimed audio for a track from the YouTube Audio Library	Montages and driving footage where music is just a bed
Erase song	Mutes the claimed audio — you choose just the song, or all of the video’s audio	Commentary videos where your voice has to survive

“Erase song” is the one that saves most gaming uploads, because it can strip the music and leave the rest of the mix standing. It is not perfect on dense audio, so review the result before you commit — and remember that processing time varies, which is exactly why you do not want to be doing this on launch night, when every hour of search traffic counts.

Soundtrack videos worth making right now

Music is a rare GTA 6 topic with real search volume before launch, and it keeps earning after. Angles that work without the game in your hands:

• “Every confirmed GTA 6 song so far” — re-cut it each time a single drops.
• Each single reviewed on release day, with the Vice City connection.
• “GTA 6 radio stations: confirmed vs. leaked” — the fact-check angle almost nobody is covering honestly.
• Trailer music breakdowns, which pair naturally with the rest of your GTA 6 video ideas queue.
• A launch-night “first hour of radio” reaction, slotted into your GTA 6 launch week plan.

Music videos live or die on the thumbnail, because the search results for every soundtrack query look identical — same album cover, same neon. Work from these GTA 6 thumbnail ideas and keep one fixed layout so your uploads stack visibly down a results page. If your channel art does not match that look yet, the full six-asset set is laid out in our GTA 6 YouTube branding guide — or start with a matched banner, logo and watermark from the Creator package at $79.

FAQ

Will GTA 6 radio music get my YouTube video copyright claimed?

It can. The licensed songs on GTA 6 radio belong to their labels and publishers, who register them with YouTube Content ID. Rockstar’s in-game licence does not transfer to your upload, so the safe habit is switching the radio off for guide and commentary footage.

How many songs are in the GTA 6 soundtrack?

Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album holds 34 original songs written for the game, released through Atlantic Records on November 19, 2026. Six have been revealed as singles; the other 28 stay unannounced until launch. Licensed catalogue music on the in-game radio is counted separately.

What are the GTA 6 radio stations?

Rockstar has not published a station list. V-Rock is the only name that has appeared in official material. The roughly fourteen station names circulating online, including Kaleidoscope FM and Emotion 98.3, come from leaks rather than Rockstar, so treat them as unconfirmed in your videos.

Can I monetize GTA 6 gameplay on YouTube?

Gameplay with your own commentary is standard monetizable content, and a Content ID claim is not the same thing as a copyright strike. But a claim on radio music can redirect that video’s revenue to the claimant or block it in some countries, which is why clean audio matters more than the footage itself.

Music is only half the copyright question. The visual side — logos, wordmarks and key art — follows completely different rules, and our guide to GTA 6 logo copyright explains which assets you can never use as channel branding.

GTA 6 Creator Branding is an independent creator branding service and is not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.