Steam has been a fixture of PC gaming for well over a decade, and alongside its ubiquity as a sales platform for games, developers and publishers of all shapes and sizes have used it to sell soundtracks and additional media with their titles. Fans and creators alike have gotten by with using Steam's DLC distribution features for game soundtracks, but a new update to the app's developer tools will allow music to be bought and sold separately from games, as well as making them easier to listen to with new playback features.
The previous system required players to own a game on Steam before being able to own the soundtrack, and most game soundtracks were tucked into the installation files rather than going into players' music libraries. With the new updates, however, fans will be able to own a soundtrack regardless of whether they have the associated game on Steam. A dedicated section on the app will allow players to play, browse and manage their music directly from the Steam library, and soundtracks bought on Steam can be configured to fit within a folder of the user's choice on their PC. The company will launch a soundtrack sale event on January 20th to highlight the new capabilities.
The improvements to game soundtracks on Steam also extend to the developer side of the app, simplifying the upload process for music content and letting soundtracks be sold on Steam even if the associated game isn't available on the service. Valve is also hoping to make the transition for existing music uploads simple by providing a tool for developers to use to port old content over to the new system, which also has support for music in multiple formats like FLAC, MP3 and WAV, liner notes and dedicated album art.
Valve's interest in building Steam as a distributor of music alongside its gaming roots may make the platform a natural choice for creators already present in the game soundtrack space, like Rocket League's series of collaborative albums with electronic label Monstercat or the critically acclaimed music from titles like Hollow Knight.
With enough development and interest from users and partners, the app could very well become an unexpected replacement for the recently discontinued iTunes, which became notorious for poor support and a confusing design by the time it ceased development. Finding a balance between features users want and unnecessary bloat proved too difficult for Apple to manage, but Valve might just be the ones to do it if they hit the right notes.
Source: Steamworks