Steam has released Steam Music from beta so users can now enjoy music while gaming on the Steam platform.
Steam Music shows a shift for the company into other media apart from games and is a move that was highly anticipated by many Steam users.
"For years, customers have been asking us to provide a basic way for them to access and play music while in-game," said Valve, the company behind Steam, in a statement. "Task-switching between resource-intensive 3D games and other desktop apps has never been a graceful experience for gamers, so an in-game player can help by eliminating that pain point."
The new feature will allow users to be able to listen to music directly through Steam instead of a third-party music player, and will also scan game folders for soundtracks in case they prefer to listen to music created specifically for games.
Steam Music will automatically install through the latest Steam update, after which users will have to restart their system. Otherwise, the update can be installed manually by clicking "Check for Steam Client Updates" in the Steam menu at the top left of the screen.
Users will then be able to access music by clicking on "Library" and then "Music." Unfortunately, users will still have to manually turn down music in games if they want to listen to their own music, and Steam Music will not do this manually.
"Beyond addressing this context-switching hurdle, we see an opportunity to broaden Steam as an entertainment platform which includes music alongside games and other forms of media," continued the company's statement. "With our ongoing efforts to make Steam accessible in the living room with SteamOS and Steam Machines, the timing feels right for us to make an investment in this broader picture."
The music player currently is rather basic, however it is sure to get better as time goes on and it gets updated.
In celebration of the new music player, Valve has also announced that it will come with the soundtracks for the games Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Portal and Portal 2 for free. While users will need to own the games to take advantage of the soundtracks, Valve has made it easier for users to buy them by dropping the prices of these four games by 75 percent until Oct. 1.
Steam Music was released in beta back in February, however it was not officially released on all platforms until now.
