Steam Music announced, beta starting soon

Steam will be getting a new Music feature soon, in beta testing on both the Big Picture and SteamOS interfaces.

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Steam Machines are taking a big step towards turning the popular gaming platform into an all-in-one set-top box, and Valve has announced a new beta feature that will further those goals. Steam Music will be hitting both Big Picture and SteamOS interfaces as a beta, letting you listen to your music collection while playing games.

An official announcement made on the Steam Music group outlines the features. With Steam Music, you can listen to music directly through the interface, and your Steam Library will include Album and Artist views. You can manage your play queue, access the music player through your guide, and manage your playlist through the Steam overlay while in a game.

The beta is only planned for SteamOS and Big Picture at first, but Valve promises that a desktop version will be coming soon as well. If you're interested in participating in the beta, join the Steam Music community to signal your interest.

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  • reply
    February 3, 2014 11:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Steam Music announced, beta starting soon.

    Steam will be getting a new Music feature soon, in beta testing on both the Big Picture and SteamOS interfaces.

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 11:48 AM

      I could see them easily tie in with Sonos, especially with the push for streaming your game play to different places. But, this isn't a music service, yet. So, it's only a glorified Winamp - who maybe Steam should have bought? hmmm

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      February 3, 2014 12:05 PM

      Cool, now that winamp is dead we could use a new music player that is in active development.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 12:11 PM

        Really sucks how Winamp can't play music any more now that it isn't being actively developed. :(

        • reply
          February 3, 2014 1:18 PM

          lol

        • reply
          February 3, 2014 1:42 PM

          Haha, I know, I still use it. But there won't be any integration for any future music services that may arise. This steam service could potentially link up with soundcloud and stuff like that.

          That said, given the staying power we've seen for flac and mp3, winamp will be fine for playing most files for a decade or five.

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            February 3, 2014 3:21 PM

            It can live forever with plugins. New format? New input plugin! There are plenty of third party plugins like that already

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 12:29 PM

        Errr.. http://winamp.com/

        The Llama is alive and well.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 3:16 PM

        Musicbee is all you will ever need, IMO. Http://www.getmusicbee.com

        AutoDJ works great, has support for every major format, is actively in development and not owned by AOL ;)

      • reply
        February 4, 2014 3:58 AM

        MediaMonkey!

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 12:14 PM

      I wonder what percentage of Valve is still working on games

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 1:07 PM

        Depends on whether you include the hat division or not.

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 12:30 PM

      Does this support FLAC or OGG?

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 1:04 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 1:12 PM

      Great news!

      First, we had a small footprint client that just played game.

      Then, we got more videos in game pages that start automatically with the volume at max, guides, the workshop, Steam Greenlight, Softwares, Collection cards, the market place, comments we don't wanna see, etc. And now at long last we also have music to cover the sound of the game!

      I'm very happy to see my Steam client will top 5 GIG of RAM someday, because it can...

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 1:14 PM

        I will be truly upset when steam is taking up 5 of my 128gb of ram in 5 years.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 1:18 PM

        bro stop gaming on a macbook

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 2:49 PM

        My Steam client is using 30 MB of RAM and starts all videos muted. Also are you really complaining about optional features that a lot of people like but have virtually no effect on the people who choose not to use them? "comments we don't want to see" lol gtfo

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 7:04 PM

        You also got crazy Steam sales along the why, so quit your bellyaching. And my client is only using 141mb after running it all day with gaming.

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 1:17 PM

      I loved the in-game mp3 player it used to have during the TFC days

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 4:31 PM

        i forgot all about that. it was prett yneat

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 1:21 PM

      Because there are so many game soundtracks I want to hear all the time?

    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      February 3, 2014 1:32 PM

      I don't get it, what is this for? There are a billion different places to buy music that are better at it than Steam will ever be. Unless this is just for soundtracks in which case whatever, Steam already sells those.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 1:33 PM

        [deleted]

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        February 3, 2014 1:33 PM

        Oh I see, maybe they're not selling anything new and it's just the player? That's cool I guess, though there are plenty of those as well.

        • reply
          February 3, 2014 1:51 PM

          The selling point will be the in-game integration I expect. First just as an overlay ui through the Steam client and then eventually allows you to replace in-game music like a console does. With Steamworks tied into the game, and this extension, it's completely possible at that point.

          If they have the specific quest of the anti-console, then this make sense. Though, eventually they'll want to partner with some kind of media providing service too, and just the subscription guys.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 2:00 PM

        It's for the TV. It will let you listen to music while you play games, all using a controller interface. Alt tabbing while you're on the couch sucks.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 6:49 PM

        you know what valve love.. moneyhats.

      • reply
        February 4, 2014 12:55 AM

        Seems bizarre at first but I reckon they picked up on the fact that people like to listen to music while playing their games and want to integrate that functionality. While monetizing it somehow.

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 1:36 PM

      Its becoming too power, we have to destroy it before it grows stronger and destroys all of mankind.

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 1:51 PM

      This is like the new thing. Everyone is making their own streaming music service.

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 1:59 PM

      As someone who doesn't buy music (I tend to just bookmark stuff on youtube and listen there), this sounds pretty cool to me. I won't have to run or sub to another service if I wanted to buy albums or songs. I also like the idea of playing music via the overlay while in-game.

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 2:02 PM

      Coolio.

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 2:05 PM

      I'm always muting game music when the woman and I are playing MP and putting on a play list or something else. During games where I need the sound I keep it. But having an in client music option is pretty decent. MS and Sony do this too!

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 2:27 PM

      any reason to use this over spotify?

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 3:19 PM

      I can already listen to music while playing games, it's not really that hard.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 3:22 PM

        So what? This seems specifically designed for doing that conveniently when using SteamOS.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 3:28 PM

        good news! if you're not using steamos, this doesn't apply to you anyway! :D

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 3:27 PM

      Sign me up. I would also like them to sell music in bundles and for good price.

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 4:50 PM

      EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!

    • reply
      February 3, 2014 8:17 PM

      Yep, Steam definitely needed a streaming music service. Yep.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 8:27 PM

        I don't think it is offering streaming music.

      • reply
        February 3, 2014 10:21 PM

        it should be like spotify, but lets me stream music into my game with the UI in the steam in-game UI.

      • reply
        February 4, 2014 12:47 AM

        It plays music from your harddrive and is mainly for those using SteamOS or Big Picture Mode on a regular basis.

        I don't get why it's such a hard concept to grasp.

      • reply
        February 4, 2014 2:00 AM

        It really needed that for Steambox. That's all.

    • reply
      February 4, 2014 2:42 AM

      front page posters itt

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