The tenth anniversary of the original console release of Grand Theft Auto IV is coming up on April 29th. Rockstar will be helping the fans celebrate this momentous occasion by removing most of the licensed songs in the game with a mandatory patch.

A large patch is expected to be launched for all versions of Grand Theft Auto that will disable access to most of the licensed tracks in the game. It's unknown if these tracks will be replaced with generic music or if the radio stations will just have a lot less material to cycle through.

The best way to avoid losing access to the songs is preventing the game from updating. The patch will likely be necessary in order to be able to play the online modes in Grand Theft Auto IV, so you would have to be fine with never playing the multiplayer modes again if you want to keep the music tracks.

Rockstar's usage of licensed tracks within their Grand Theft Auto games always seem to be tied to ten-year-long agreements, as we have seen a similar situation in the past with the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The presence of the online modes in these games is what facilitates such changes, as nothing could be done with the older Grand Theft Auto titles. It's not like Rockstar is going to replace every disc version of the game just to remove the music, so the PlayStation 2/Xbox copies of San Andreas remain unaffected.

The soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto IV included songs by Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Busta Rhymes, David Bowie, Genesis, Queen, Elton John, The Who, Iron Maiden, Bob Markey & The Wailers, Marillion, Hall & Oates, Aphex Twin, Kanye West, and Ghostface Killah. There has been no word on exactly what artists & songs will be removed from the game and what will still be included after April 29th.

Fans can expect a similar event to happen in September 2023, when the ten year anniversary of Grand Theft Auto V comes to pass.