Rockstar Games and Amazon have devised a new digital music distribution model especially for Grand Theft Auto IV... starting in the US.

The North American version of GTAIV will debut an amazing service for fans of the music being piped down the airwaves for the in-game radio stations. Real-world MP3s of the tracks that you hear can be downloaded and then saved onto any digital device, free of Digital Rights Management constraints such as those associated with iTunes. This is both big and clever, so please do read on.

The technology, which has been jointly developed by Rockstar and Amazon, has been dubbed “ZiT” (just in case you needed reminding that these guys like their jokes). You’ll see ads for ZiT plastered everywhere as Nico Bellic cruises Liberty City between ‘jobs’. Here’s how it works:

First you’ll need to register with R*s “Rockstar Games Social Club” – the upcoming community site. After this, whenever you hear a song that you especially like in GTAIV simply access Nico’s mobile phone and dial ZIT-555-0100. You’ll receive a text message (in-game) telling you the name of the song and the recording artist, and you will have an email (real world) waiting in your Inbox containing a link to Amazon. The cost for ZiT playlist tracks will be $00.89-$00.99 in the US. Roughly 50p.

Although our first reaction was that the music industry would suffer another cardiac arrest, it turns out that the big players are right behind ZiT. EMI Music Sales’ EVP Ronn Werre has described it as “a great new music discovery tool for fans and an innovative new revenue stream for artists."

With some of the songs being written exclusively for GTAIV from artists that include “Nas” and the “Greenskeepers”, Grand Theft Auto IV really has become a an exciting new, ahem, ‘vehicle’ for music fans who like to pay attention to what’s bombarding their ears for hours on end.

You could never have done this sort of thing in Space Invaders, eh granddad.