How to make your own radio station in Grand Theft Auto 5 for PC

By Will Fulton April 15, 2015

Image used with permission by copyright holder

4K resolution and 60 frames-per-second animation are great and all, but one of the best perks of Grand Theft Auto 5‘s new PC version is the ability to create your own, in-game radio station so that you can cruise around to a custom, curated playlist without needing to turn down the game’s volume and provide your own speakers.

The game itself doesn’t do a terribly good job of explaining how to do this, but fortunately it’s pretty easy, and we’re here to show you the way.

Under your user profile documents folder you should find an empty folder in \Rockstar Games\GTA V\User Music. Copy and paste the music you want (or simply shortcuts to it, if you’d rather save space) into the folder. It’s not obvious what formats are accepted, but GTA 4 supported MP3, M4A and WMA, so those are probably a safe bet.

Load up the game and Self Radio should be then available as one of your stations. Don’t fret if it isn’t. Simply head over to Settings and then Audio. Perform a “Quick” or “Full” Scan (the difference is not currently obvious to us) and then your radio station should be added. In this menu you will also have the option to select how Self Radio plays: like a regular radio station, randomly, or in sequential order — if you don’t want to mess with that perfectly-ordered mix you spent hours crafting.

gta music — Image used with permission by copyright holder

And that’s it! Now you can cruise around Los Santos while rocking out to Tuvan throat singing, books on tape, your college a cappella group — whatever floats your esoteric boat.

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Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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