The six artworks that gave away the GTA VI soundtrack

Each image is a new piece drawn in the style of the GTA VI cover art, and none of them came with an explanation. Rockstar left the clues spread across the artists’ own accounts:

• Travis Scott: purple high heels wrapped around a pole, with a caption calling it “Phase 1” and tagging Rockstar Games.
• Future, Metro Boomin and Yung Lean: one shared image, a purple Coquette with a Leonida plate reading VCE BBY. Future’s copy went up on his label Freebandz’s account.
• CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso: the front of a white yacht. PinkPantheress (through her official fan page) and Fred again.. shared artwork from the same set.
• Morgan Wallen: an empty pool with its ladder and two loungers, a first for an artist who had never been on a GTA soundtrack.
• Keith Richards: an iguana, the animal fans last saw in the Extended Look Rockstar released on Netflix.
• Rauw Alejandro: a pink flamingo pool float, with a caption about a pool party after the club.

The next day Spotify put the same artwork on billboards in Los Angeles, New York and Miami, stamped with its own logo.

Two days after the posts, Rockstar and Atlantic Records announced GTA VI: The Album: 34 brand-new tracks written for the game, released on November 19 alongside it on streaming, CD and vinyl. Six singles came out the same day, and they line up with the artworks:

• Yung Lean, “That’s It” (feat. Future & Metro Boomin): the three artists who posted the Coquette.
• CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso, PinkPantheress, Fred again.. & Etienne de Crécy, “Sexy Magic”: the yacht group, plus the French house producer.
• Travis Scott, “RHYNO”: produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, formerly of Daft Punk.
• Morgan Wallen, “Last Thing You Need”.
• Rauw Alejandro, “Macacoa 2000”.
• Keith Richards, “Bright Lights, Big City”.

That leaves 28 tracks unannounced. Fuerza Regida’s “Suzuki”, released on October 8, has been reported as one of them, after the group briefly appeared on Spotify’s album listing.

The album is not the same thing as the in-game radio. In October Rockstar previewed the first six stations on the Music page of the official GTA VI site, each with hosts and a sound of its own:

• Cocoteo FM: modern Latin music, from bachata and merengue to dembow and reggaeton, hosted by Bad Bunny and RaiNao.
• Back Country Radio: renegade country hosted by Morgan Wallen and Lana Del Rey, with Jeremy Dufrene as a swamp weatherman reporting from an airboat.
• AfroBank FM: African music from classics to amapiano and 3-step, hosted by Burna Boy and Palms Trax.
• The Chamber 106.6: metal, hosted by Kerry King and Tom Araya of Slayer.
• Flash FM: the returning Vice City pop station, now hosted by Robyn and Alex Consani.
• Dirty South Classics: Southern rap and hip-hop with Miami’s Trick Daddy and Trina.

Rockstar says the full line-up runs from classic rock to talk radio, so more stations are still to come. Radio and on-demand podcasts can also be played on foot this time, through headphones connected to Jason’s and Lucia’s phones. The French duo Justice are composing the game’s dynamic score.

The six singles are already on streaming services, and the album can be pre-saved there. The station previews play on the Music page of the official GTA VI site. Everything else, including the rest of the album, arrives with the game on November 19 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

These are open questions. Nothing below is confirmed by Rockstar; we will update this page when it is.

• Will Travis Scott appear in the game? His post paired the heels and pole with a partly spelled-out clue that fans read as Jack of Hearts, a Vice City strip club, which suggests a performance or an appearance rather than only a song. Unconfirmed.
• What is “Phase 1”? The wording promises more. With 28 album tracks still unnamed, a second wave of artist posts before launch is likely, but no date has been given. An Instagram story by Hendrix Smoke that tagged Don Toliver and Kodak Black next to Travis Scott’s art fueled more names; that is a rumour.
• Which album songs play on the radio? Rockstar has not said. Our guess: Morgan Wallen’s single on Back Country Radio, which he hosts; Rauw Alejandro and “Sexy Magic” on Cocoteo FM or Flash FM; Keith Richards on the classic rock station that has not been revealed yet.
• Did each artwork stand for a station? That was the leading theory in September. The album showed the shared images stood for shared songs instead, and of the stations announced so far only Back Country Radio has one of these artists, as a host. The scenes in the art (a pool party, a yacht, a strip club, the Leonida plate) may still turn up as places or missions in the game.