Valve has released its Steam Music Player to all users, following a beta launch in February. The simplified feature integrates your computer’s music library into the Steam Overlay system and allows players to listen to songs and full albums without ever having to leave your game.
You can access Steam Music in the game client’s drop down menu or by pulling up the Steam Overlay and clicking on the “Music” tab. A floating window will appear displaying your music library and from there you can browse your collection and create playlists like you typically would in iTunes or another music player.
The Steam Music Player will also scan and collect your game folders for any related soundtracks. Valve is looking to add to that sub-collection by giving away several soundtrack albums for Valve games to anyone who already has the base products. The promotion, celebrating the player’s launch, includes soundtracks for Half-Life, Portal and Free to Play, among others.
Earlier this year, Billboard took an educated guess that the Valve was considering incorporating streaming services like Spotify into its Steam client, opening an up-to-now silent experience to its 65 million users. No plans for that integration have been announced, despite its appearance in the clients code base early this year.
Steam has over 3,500 games and boasts of having more than 75 million account holders. That number was at 65 million in October 2013. The Washington-based company is currently working on its highly anticipated Steam Machine and controller for an anticipated 2015 launch.
