GTA IV’s song license has expired, which has removed over fifty songs from the game’s radio stations.

Music licensing is a funny thing. It used to be if you sold some music to a software developer for use in a game there wasn’t a time limit attached to it. People couldn’t reach out and digitally remove songs from your game since they were burned to a disc, and so songs were licensed with the understanding that so long as games are being made, those songs will be in them.

That’s not how music licensing works anymore. Even single player games are connected via the internet so that it can be patched and updated, which means game developers can alter the game with or without your permission. It also means that record execs can issue licenses for music that are temporary with the full understanding that once the license runs out those songs can be removed from the game.

Which is exactly what’s happened to Grand Theft Auto IV, 2008’s game of the year. The license for many of the songs featured in the game only lasted for a decade, so when that decade was up Rockstar was presented a difficult decision: renew the license for those songs, which for some are a lot more expensive than in 2008, or remove the songs entirely.

RELATED: HOW TO PREVENT YOUR COPY OF GTA IV FROM LOSING ITS LICENSED MUSIC

Rockstar opted to remove, so many of those iconic songs are getting pulled from people’s GTA IVs install folders even as we speak.

The radio station hit hardest was Vladivostok FM, which has lost 15 songs between the core game and expansions combined. Those songs are, naturally, Russian, so it’s a little weird that Rockstar found the price tag to be too expensive on them. Apparently, Russian music has gone upmarket.

Liberty City Radio was next hardest hit, losing such classics as David Bowie’s Fascination, Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell, and The Smashing Pumpkin's 1979.

A Steam forum post lists all the songs that got the ax, and there’s 54 so far and counting. Eleven have been added back to refill Vladivostok FM’s roster, but it just ‘aint the same.

Keep an eye on older games with licensed tunes, as the same thing could happen to them soon too.

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