Wow. US-based players of GTA IV can buy copies of in-game music, without leaving the game — cool. The more interesting bit is this, though — sounds like Rockstar might be doing a better job of tracking down rightsholders for the music they’re licensing this time around than they did last time:

[Rockstar] is one of the few game developers that actually creates and licenses its own soundtracks — a task often left to the game publisher — and the company approaches it with a passion close to music-geek-like obsession.

Consider the back story on how the 1979 cult classic “Walk the Night” by the Skatt Bros. came to appear on the soundtrack. Skatt Bros. member Sean Delaney — also known as the “fifth member of Kiss” for his writing and production work with the rock band — died in 2003, leaving his publishing share to a brother, a sister and a nephew living somewhere in Utah. They proved so hard to find that Rockstar went through the trouble of hiring a private investigator who flew to Orum, Utah, to locate them.

“It was just one of those songs we just couldn’t let go of,” Rockstar music supervisor Ivan Pavlovich says. “It fit the game perfectly, so we were obviously determined to track them down.”

When I heard about the “hiring a PI” story, I thought to myself, “why bother? just pick another tune.” But they’re right — you couldn’t leave this one out:

The Skatt Brothers - Walk The Night

Super-camp hard rocking disco, as heard on Optimo’s “Psyche Out” and frequent appearances in the CBS Top 100… tune!

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