Valve announced some significant changes to how soundtracks are handled on Steam. So far, they were technically a type of DLC, which meant players were required to own a certain game if they also wanted to purchase that title's soundtrack. This will be changed now, and soundtracks will also be available in multiple sound quality levels.
Fixing Existing Issues
- customers can now purchase soundtracks without purchasing the base game.
- customers can now download soundtracks without downloading the base game.
- customers can browse and manage their owned and downloaded soundtracks directly from the new Steam library.
- customers can configure a Steam "music" directory where all soundtrack content will be placed, rather than having to locate it in subdirectories of game content.
- developers can upload and manage soundtrack content entirely through the partner site, without using steamcmd.
- developers can sell soundtracks where the base game itself is not available for sale on Steam.
Brand New Functionality
- First, soundtracks can support multiple quality levels. Every soundtrack will contain a set of standard MP3s, but soundtracks can also include optional high-quality audio depots (ie., FLAC, or raw WAV). Individual customers can opt-in to these larger, higher-quality audio files.
- Second, there's a new interface for soundtracks in the Steam Library. This interface is minimal for now, but is designed to make it as painless as possible to perform the most common actions: playback, browsing, and managing contents.
- Third, soundtracks can now contain bits of associated content, including album art and liner notes. These bits of content can also be viewed from the details page for a soundtrack in the Steam Library.
The official launch of this feature on Steam will take place on January 20th alongside a dedicated sale event, probably modeled after the one set recently for the new Steam Remote Play Together feature.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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