Rockstar Games quietly pulled a song from Grand Theft Auto V's radio this week and it is likely the start of more to come. A hotfix around September 15 removed Moloko's 2000 single "The Time Is Now" from Non-Stop-Pop FM in Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced, a change first spotted by dataminers and expected to reach consoles too.
Rockstar hasn't given an official reason yet, but it's not hard to guess why. Licensed music in Grand Theft Auto radio stations comes with time-limited deals, usually around ten years and GTA V is now about thirteen years old. When a license lapses and is not renewed, the track has to come out. We are almost 100% certain that's what happened to "The Time Is Now."
This is a recurring problem for aging GTA games. Back in 2018, Grand Theft Auto IV lost dozens of songs across several stations once its original licenses expired, with its Russian pop station hit hardest. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas shed tracks in later releases for the same reason. The music in these games is licensed, never owned, so once the clock runs out, Rockstar's hands are tied.
GTA's history of losing licensed music
Game | What happened |
|---|---|
Grand Theft Auto IV (2018) | Dozens of tracks removed after 10-year licenses expired |
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | Songs cut from later releases over licensing |
GTA V Enhanced (2026) | Moloko's "The Time Is Now" pulled in a hotfix |
Aging GTA games shed songs as their music licenses run out.
Renewing licenses is not as simple as it sounds. A game like GTA V and Grand Theft Auto Online carries hundreds of licensed tracks and extending every expiring deal across a catalog that size gets expensive fast even with Rockstar's unlimited budget. Rights holders can also refuse or raise their price, the latter of which is most likely to happen now that the amount of money GTA Online makes every year is public information. For what it's worth, Rockstar has sometimes added replacement songs to soften the loss, as it did on one GTA IV station in 2018, but it cannot legally keep playing music it no longer has the rights to. So, it has no other choice but to remove it or risk legal trouble.
This is one of the few and unfortunate downside of games that stay alive and relevant for over a decade. The soundtrack you love and enjoy in GTA is not permanent, losing tracks whenever deals lapse. Physical discs and older offline installs tend to keep the songs longer since they'll stay exactly as they are unless updated and patched. Expect more of these removals as GTA V ages with Grand Theft Auto VI set to hit the same wall once its own licenses start counting down years from now.