The English musician Martyn Ware (63) says he has received an offer from Rockstar Games, that the gaming studio wants to use one of his songs for GTA 6: the 80s hit Temptation
. At first, he was excited about the offer, but then the joy quickly faded. He found the offer to be an absolute disgrace. Fans of Grand Theft Auto 6 tried to convince him to accept the offer. But Ware sharply disagrees with them.
Who is the musician Martyn Ware?
- Martyn Ware is a musician and composer. He founded two synth-pop groups: “Human League” and
Heaven 17
. This was more than 40 years ago. - One of his hits was in April 1983 with “Temptation” by Heaven 17.
- This very song Rockstar wanted to buy from him for GTA 6.
Musician is excited about the offer to be in GTA 6 – Then he sees what Rockstar offers him in terms of money
This is what the musician writes: Martyn Ware writes on September 7 on Twitter: His publisher sent him an email, Rockstar Games inquired whether they could use the song “Temptation” in Grand Theft Auto 6.
He was very excited and thought about the immense wealth that awaited him.
Ware hurriedly scrolled down the email. The 63-year-old musician saw that Rockstar Games offered him $7,500 (about €6,720) for the use of the song as a one-time fee and without him ever seeing another cent from the game – never.
He says: Grand Theft Auto 6 has made $8.6 billion. But, he should remember how much attention that would bring him.
His tweet ends with: “Go fuck yourself” – which translates to something like: No, thank you.
Rockstar rejects counteroffer
Did it go any further? Yes, the musician says he demanded £75,000 (about €89,000).
Rockstar declined.
This is the song in question:
Has GTA 6 really made $8.6 billion? No, the number is nonsense. GTA 6 hasn’t made anything yet. He apparently confused it with GTA 5. As an explanation for where he got the number from, he quotes the Wikipedia article on GTA 5 (via wiki)
Take-Two is forecasting revenues of $8.6 billion for the entire company in a financial report for the fiscal year 2024.
GTA 6 fans say: Think about it again
How is this being discussed? Most in the comments are urging him to accept the offer. Some even insult him as irrelevant idiots
, who are missing the opportunity to be part of the trendy pop culture again.
So fans of Rockstar basically say: No one knows you. You made a huge mistake here. You could have been in the “best game” of all time and become immortal.
Others are also asking him to reconsider. GTA has 440 songs – they can’t pay a fortune for each one. The money he would get is indifferent – millions would rediscover his song.
Others say, however: The rejection is indeed correct. The offer is outrageous given the dimensions. And for “attention”, you can’t buy anything.
Musician starts argument with GTA 6 fans, calls them Corporate Bitches
, who have no idea
What does the musician say about this? He says in a series of tweets from this morning, September 8. He is not an idiot. He knows the game, so he knows what they could pay. He is well versed in music rights and has been dealing with it for 20 years.
The people who insulted him here are Corporate Bitches
, who should stop kneeling before the industry.
Anyone telling him that “attention” brings so much should consider that 1 million streaming views only bring the author of a song about $1,000 in royalties.
GTA 6 is the next big game for many. For some, it is even the great hope to revitalize the slightly struggling gaming industry. We have compiled all the information known so far for you in an article: GTA 6 – All the info on release, platforms and trailers
