Steam Music allows you to listen to your Music Library in Game.

[Stunt]

I'm not this biggest fan of listening to music while gaming, I often put all game music off as well - However exceptions are made with Open World RPG's and the sort where I often crave my own tunes to keep me company as I explore.

What do you guys think?

Steam users will soon be able to listen to their local collection of music while they play games with Steam Music, Valve announced recently.

The feature will allow people to point Steam to the directory of music on their computer's hard drive, and from there, Steam Music will present them with a navigable layout of their entire music library akin to software such as iTunes. Users will be able to play tracks and albums through Steam Music by accessing the audio player from their controller's guide button or from the main menu in Steam Big Picture. Features include the ability to create and manage playlists, and sort a library by album and artist.

Valve will soon launch a beta of Steam Music for Big Picture and SteamOS, with integration in the desktop version of Steam coming afterward. According to Valve, the beta will offer "what we believe to be the most fundamental set of features to offer a great music listening experience within Steam."

Interested parties can see more screenshots on the announcement page for Steam Music, and join the Steam Music group on Steam Community to have a chance at beta access. Steam Music appears to be separate from Valve's previous announcement saying that streaming music, movies and TV shows are coming to Steam. We're reaching out to Valve for more details, and will update this article with any information we receive.

News Source: polygon.com
Actual Source: Steam Community

 

[AlienTaker]

well i like listening to my own music specially when i play dota or Darksiders or NFSHP because the loopy music in the fist 2 games are just annoying. and trance always helps me enjoy my games more cept in BF then i need the game sound sor those peskers that try and take tags

But any idea of when this might happen?

 

[VirtualForce]

yeah, most games, I like the ambient or in game sound, like Skyrim for example, other games you need to hear so I turn off all music, but, for fast paced games, I like to have some music going, keeps you energized and moving.

Awesome addition to STEAM! STEAM really turned around into something great. Remember how I hated it years ago.

Also, whats next, STEAM Summer/Winter Music Sale? Would be a great place to purchase music as well.

 

[blaaislaai]

This is a good feature. I always tend to listen to metal in TF2, helps me keep the adrenaline going while killing. I guess this is just a convenient feature of steam. It's still easier for me to just have WMP in the background and being able to turn it on/off with the play/pause keyboard macro.

 

[AlphaJohn]

There is also talks about the Console/fullscreen version to go full "media portal" including Media streaming ala Hulu & Netflix but this is expected since they really gonna push the SteamOS "consoles"

What better way to push it than to replace media PC's found in most homes.

 

[Tom]

Sure this is going to be a big addition to the Steam OS and the Steam machines...

Would be awesome to purchase music through steam, and with steam sales etc could be EPIC!

 

[Mister 44]

I prefer the game soundtrack to my own music. If the music of the game is well done, it adds to the overall experience and builds the mood. Imagine this pops up in the middle of an epic boss battle:

So no, not a feature I'd use. Except in the odd racing game.

 

[chan0o]

I think this is a welcomed feature for steam OS and big picture.
No more exiting steam interface to look for music.

Buuut, I don't see much impact on the steam application (on pc/macs).
Alt-tab is convenient enough if one is sitting in front of a keyboard.

To add on to AlphaJohn...Bring on the video player/streamer!
Maybe also 75% off music albums

 

[oltman]

this will only be of use when running a Steam Big Picture pc in the lounge. i never listen to the music while gaming, but if my Steam lounge PC is there then why not use it for music anyway? all we need now is an Android remote control app

 

[MetalSoup]

I prefer the game soundtrack to my own music. If the music of the game is well done, it adds to the overall experience and builds the mood. Imagine this pops up in the middle of an epic boss battle:

So no, not a feature I'd use. Except in the odd racing game.

I agree, I tend to listen to game soundtracks more than any other kind of music anyway.

 

[AlphaJohn]

I agree, I tend to listen to game soundtracks more than any other kind of music anyway.

1st setting I change in any game, be it mobile, PC or console is turn off music. Esp lately as I found that most of them break the atmosphere of the game instead of enhancing it.

If I do play games where I don't need q sounds ie: bejeweled or so on I normally use Winamp and my own music.

 

[Avatar]

This is great, I'm all for pushing the media center features to the forefront. It's a necessity for becoming a living room box like Steam is trying to, now we just need video streaming (eaaaaaaasy), better VOIP (not too hard), and then fixing games on Linux! (Wait, what now?)

 

[addam]

I think this is a welcomed feature for steam OS and big picture.
No more exiting steam interface to look for music.

Buuut, I don't see much impact on the steam application (on pc/macs).
Alt-tab is convenient enough if one is sitting in front of a keyboard.

+1 on this, I think they'll add streaming functionality from a computer to your Steam Box, that way you can listen to music while you play your games on the big screen.

 

[Crableg]

Awesome, Valve is slowly integrating everything gamers like into Steam & Steam OS, the platform has been expanding super quickly recently.

 

[AlienTaker]

Well i joined the community grp now lets hope i get a beta inv

 

[addam]

So if you're running on Steam OS I believe you get instant beta access and you are able to stream your music from a PC to a steam box or perhaps Steam on another computer.