šŸ”— šŸŽµ How ā€œGrand Theft Autoā€ Is Changing the Way the World Experiences Music

These are some staggering numbers, from a really interesting Rolling Stone article:

In the five years since launch, GTA V and GTA Online gamers have listened to more than an estimated 75 billion minutes of music from the gameā€™s 18 radio stations. Taking place inside the gameā€™s bars and now in player-run clubs, the music is produced by its four well-known DJs, including the Black Madonna.

Iā€™m fascinated by this whole thing:

The biggest effort to date, however, came with the release of a massive update to GTA Online called ā€œAfter Hours.ā€ The expansion adds to the already absurdly large, multi-faceted farcical recreation of life in Los Angeles, the ability to purchase your own nightclub, run it legitimately or as a front for organized crime and hire DJs to keep the place packed.

The free game addition came with renowned deep house DJ Solomun as a signed act. Over the course of four weeks, the game also added Tale of Us, Dixon and the Black Madonna. Instead of licensing a few songs from each, Rockstar decided to do something much deeper: They wanted to recreate the DJs themselves in the game, injecting not just their music, but their personalities into it the virtual world.

Rian van der Merwe Elezea // The B-Sides