GTA 6 allegedly makes Human League founder ‘iniquitous’ offer for the rights to his music

ONE of the best parts of the Grand Theft Auto series is the radio, and the dozens of shows you can listen to as you drive.

But radio shows are only as strong as their libraries of songs, and that means licensing tracks from the artists.

Most of these deals are made behind closed doors, but one artist has spoken out after receiving what they called an ‘iniquitous’ offer from developer Rockstar Games.

Martyn Ware has been in the music industry for decades, founding both The Human League and Heaven 17, and producing music for other stars like Tina Turner and Erasure.

Working in the industry for so long, Ware knows a thing or two about how it works, which is what led him to create a thread on Twitter.

Ware alleges that his publisher contacted him on behalf of Rockstar to license the use of Heaven 17’s 1983 hit Temptation.

However, he was more than a little disappointed by the offer that was being made.

He writes: I was recently contacted by my publishers on behalf of Rockstar Games re the possibility of using Temptation on the new Grand Theft Auto 6.

“Naturally excited about the immense wealth that was about to head my way, I scrolled to the bottom of the email re the offer… it was $7.5k (£5.7k) for a buyout of any future royalties from the game forever.

“To put this in context, Grand Theft Auto [5] grossed, wait for it… $8.6billion. Ah, but think of the exposure.”

People in the comments told Ware that he made a bad decision turning down the offer and GTA 6 would generate a lot of exposure for the song and the band.

However, Ware hit back using his industry knowledge, explaining to people why this is a bad deal.

He said: “I’ve worked in artist rights advocacy for 20 years. I know the game. This is iniquitous.

“For those claiming Heaven 17 should have accepted the extremely low offer for buyout for Temptation in GTA 6 claiming ‘increased exposure’… An extra 1million streams generates each writer a pitiful $1k each.”

Ware also claims that his publisher made a counter offer of £75k but that Rockstar “refused”.

It’s unclear if this is the standard offer made to artists and no one else has come forward publicly at the time of writing.

If you want to read more about GTA 6, check out why we think GTA 6 should make players anonymous.

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