The score to Metal Gear Solid 4 was led by Harry Gregson-Williams, his third Metal Gear Solid soundtrack, and Nobuko Toda, who provided music for Metal Gear Acid and Metal Gear Acid 2. Other contributors are Konami employees Shuichi Kobori, Kazuma Jinnouchi, Akihiro Honda, and Sota Fujimori. Directed by Norihiko Hibino, GEM Impact employees Yoshitaka Suzuki and Takahiro Izutani also made compositions late in the game's production. It was revealed in an interview with Norihiko Hibino that the team in fact wrote 90 minutes of music for the game's cutscenes, only 15 minutes of which made its way onto the official soundtrack.
There are two vocal themes for the game. The opening theme, "Love Theme", is sung by Jackie Presti and composed by Nobuko Toda. The ending theme, "Here's To You", is sung by Lisbeth Scott. Before the release of the game, "MGS4 - Theme of Love - Smash Bros. Brawl Version" was provided for Super Smash Bros. Brawl in the Shadow Moses Island level. The Metal Gear Solid Main Theme, composed by Tappi "TAPPY" Iwase, was notably omitted from the soundtrack, and the soundtrack of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. In an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly, Norihiko Hibino stated that the company had difficulties with "Russian composers who said we stole their music", referring to an occasion when a group of Russian games journalists presented Hideo Kojima with a composition by Georgy Sviridov and claimed this had been plagiarised to create the theme. Hibino states that "they didn't actually", however the company was "too sensitive about the situation" and elected to drop the theme.
The official soundtrack was released on May 28, 2008 by Konami Digital Entertainment under the catalog number GFCA-98/9. It consists of two discs of music and 47 tracks. A soundtrack album was also packaged with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Limited Edition.
