How to create a custom radio station in GTA 5

GTA 5 radio 1

One of the cool things about GTA 5 PC is the ability to play your own music; and not in the usual way of turning down the audio and cranking Spotify in the background. "Self Radio" is GTA 5's music player, and, much like GTA 4, it integrates your tunes into a new radio station, complete with chatter between songs.

How do you set it up, then? For all of GTA 5's many tutorial boxes, it doesn't obviously outline the process. Luckily, it's a pretty painless procedure.

First things first, you'll need some music. Finding what file formats GTA 5 supports is a little tricky, but, if we use GTA 4's Independence FM as a guide, you should be okay with MP3, M4A and WMA. Now find the User Music folder. It's in your user profile, in '\Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA V\'. Next, copy (or move) the music into the folder.

GTA 5 radio 2

In-game, GTA 5 should automatically find your music and add Self Radio as a new station. If it doesn't, head into the game's settings menu, and open the Audio tab. In there, you'll be given the option to perform a 'Quick' or 'Full' scan. Also in the options menu, you can change how Self Radio plays—either keeping it as a traditional radio station, or simply playing your music sequentially or in a random order.

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Phil Savage
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Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.

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