[IDEA]Steam Music

[TsunamiWombat]

Steam Music.

Soooo... iTunes?

 

[Dwarfman]

The only music coming out of steam is elevator music whilst I wait for my game to update.

 

[Solo-Wing]

I think a steam music player in general is a great idea, as it's a bit hard to change tracks while playing games.

I can't see Valve selling music though, unless it was soundtracks to games. Valve is still a games company, and I think they would stick to that.

Yeah but you can actually get the entire Valve soundtrack for free though. Just DL Audiosurf or its demo and you should find the songs in its steam directory.

What Valve SHOULD do is make steam compatible with iTunes. Control your songs without alt-tab-ing out.

 

[Zer_]

If Valve wanted to compete with Apple over the whole iTunes bit, they would've set about it already, and gone head to head with the biggest competition a long time ago before it became massively popular, when they would have had a chance.

When iTunes came, Steam was in its infancy. They only really started selling 3rd party games in 2007... That means that by the time Steam was a big enough force to even think of expanding to other mediums (as they are just now doing), iTunes was already pretty much a monopoly.

The popularity of Steam Music would come from the current Steam users, and offering these users higher quality MP3s at a similar price point, and without DRM.

 

[GiantRaven]

Why not just use Amazon, I've found that to be the best place for downloading music.

I could see there being some value in this if it was primarily for access to videogame soundtracks, which are often hard to find elsewherre. Otherwise, I don't really see the point. There are better alternatives.

Plus, I imagine the music would be tied to using Steam, since they do that with the games. That would royally suck.

The popularity of Steam Music would come from the current Steam users, and offering these users higher quality MP3s at a similar price point, and without DRM.

Because Steam is totally DRM free, right? Oh...wait...

 

[Zer_]

Why not just use Amazon, I've found that to be the best place for downloading music.

I could see there being some value in this if it was primarily for access to videogame soundtracks, which are often hard to find elsewherre. Otherwise, I don't really see the point. There are better alternatives.

Plus, I imagine the music would be tied to using Steam, since they do that with the games. That would royally suck.

The popularity of Steam Music would come from the current Steam users, and offering these users higher quality MP3s at a similar price point, and without DRM.

Because Steam is totally DRM free, right? Oh...wait...

Steam can't control MP3 files. For it to be considered DRM, it would have to utilize a proprietary audio format. Please read the OP before barking. No sane user would buy music that can only be played in Steam.

iTunes tried this, and they got shot down very fast.


Also, Amazon is nice. Offering a cheap and helpful platform for indie artists, Amazon is not.

Yoda speak ftw.

 

[DazZ.]

Steams' large market is mostly selling older games

It certainly isn't, where'd you get that from? Link [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107536-Steam-Flirts-With-1-Billion-in-2010]

OT: Really don't think there is any need for Steam to have anything musical at all, it's not what Valve know about.

Also this DRM free thing you keep mentioning isn't exactly what Steam is for either.

 

[Zer_]

Steams' large market is mostly selling older games

It certainly isn't, where'd you get that from? Link [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107536-Steam-Flirts-With-1-Billion-in-2010]

OT: Really don't think there is any need for Steam to have anything musical at all, it's not what Valve know about.

Also this DRM free thing you keep mentioning isn't exactly what Steam is for either.

Steam in itself is a form of DRM for games, you are correct. Music? That's a different issue. If Steam ever decided to sell music, they wouldn't in their right minds use DRM. DRM ventures failed epically in digital music sales.

 

[GiantRaven]

Steam can't control MP3 files. For it to be considered DRM, it would have to utilize a proprietary audio format. Please read the OP before barking. No sane user would buy music that can only be played in Steam.

I don't think any sane user would buy a game that can only be played in Steam, but people still do that.

 

[DazZ.]

Steams' large market is mostly selling older games

It certainly isn't, where'd you get that from? Link [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107536-Steam-Flirts-With-1-Billion-in-2010]

OT: Really don't think there is any need for Steam to have anything musical at all, it's not what Valve know about.

Also this DRM free thing you keep mentioning isn't exactly what Steam is for either.

Steam in itself is a form of DRM for games, you are correct. Music? That's a different issue. If Steam ever decided to sell music, they wouldn't in their right minds use DRM. DRM ventures failed epically in digital music sales.

Just shows how different music is compared to video games and how it doesn't really fit in with Steam.

 

[Tharwen]

I think it would have to stay game-related. Like, for example, people could submit FPS montage mixes that you could stream into your game to make it feel more awesome.

But, yah. It's not likely to happen, I think. Valve probably recognises Apple's dominance in the (digital) music market.

 

[tharglet]

If Steam did music, I would prefer for it to be game soundtracks, and possibly sound packs for level designers.
Some games have good soundtracks, that's worth paying a bit for the "CD", but you can't always get the CDs outside of America (or the shipping makes it not worth it).

If they did an ingame player, I think all it would need to do is to load music from anywhere on your harddrive.

 

[Zer_]

Well no one said they couldn't do game soundtracks. But really, I fail to understand why they wouldn't go for non-game related music. A lot of us play music while playing games. An MP3 store integrated into Steam would be pretty damn convenient.

I highly doubt it'd be a bust if Steam ever did this.

 

[GiantRaven]

Well no one said they couldn't do game soundtracks.

True, but I believe the idea being put across (which I agree with) is that such a service should only do game soundtracks. It's actually somewhat related to Steam and is part of a market that hasn't been adequately cornered yet, so it would actually be worth pursuing.

 

[ThatDaveDude1]

I refuse to pay for music in a lossy format. Start offering albums in FLAC and I'm on board(my favorite online distributors give free FLAC downloads with physical disc orders).

This.

OT: While I may not necessarily be against companies branching out and adding different types of functionality to products/services (Sony's addition of DVD and Blu-Ray players in the PS2 and PS3 respectively, and iTunes addition of Movies and TV Shows being decent examples) There is something to be said for a service or product completely dedicating itself to one facet and doing it as well as they can. I legitimately see no reason for Steam to do anything other than selling games, and would in fact be quite upset if they began. It's unnecessary and I highly doubt that they could do it better than the people who already do.

 

[thefleeger]

iTunes may be a joke, but its still the best music sharing format online (thats legal). you're talking about making a monopoly, which would (and should) immediately be shut down. Also, what are you going to tell all the iTunes users? Or Apple? Cause they wont take this lying down.

And iTunes isn't already a monopoly? You said it yourself. Adding some good competition through Steam would work.

It wouldn't be necessary if the player was an added folder within a Steam update. Steam doesn't have to sell the music. Adding a compatible player in which a gamer can add folders, files, etc. of music to the Steam interface or in a folder. I do think Apple wouldn't take this lying down though. I agree with that. The Apple Machine (as I will call it), is already up in arms with Adobe over Flash for God's sake, because Jobs believes Flash is an outdated form of media streaming although it is the most popular and supported coding for media streaming. Moving beyond that, Apple does have a monopoly over a particular part of the industry, but not the industry as a whole. Even if Steam decided to sell music, the artists and publishers of the music would need to give Steam the rights to sell it. I saw a comment about the infamous Steam sales, but iTunes also has similar sales on albums from $11.99 to $6.99. All in all, if a player was added in which the gamer could add files or folders to a player for Steam...that would be a nice feature, but also the embedding of the player would have to be hammered out efficiently to prevent crashes. The publishers of music and if Steam decided to sell music...that would be up to those two entities. Lastly, I don't see it happening unless the software is made EXTREMELY well, and if sales of music occur, artists agreeing to sell their music on Steam while having contracts and possible deals with other media sharing companies I.E. Amazon, Apple, etc.

 

[Zer_]

iTunes may be a joke, but its still the best music sharing format online (thats legal). you're talking about making a monopoly, which would (and should) immediately be shut down. Also, what are you going to tell all the iTunes users? Or Apple? Cause they wont take this lying down.

And iTunes isn't already a monopoly? You said it yourself. Adding some good competition through Steam would work.

It wouldn't be necessary if the player was an added folder within a Steam update. Steam doesn't have to sell the music. Adding a compatible player in which a gamer can add folders, files, etc. of music to the Steam interface or in a folder. I do think Apple wouldn't take this lying down though. I agree with that. The Apple Machine (as I will call it), is already up in arms with Adobe over Flash for God's sake, because Jobs believes Flash is an outdated form of media streaming although it is the most popular and supported coding for media streaming. Moving beyond that, Apple does have a monopoly over a particular part of the industry, but not the industry as a whole. Even if Steam decided to sell music, the artists and publishers of the music would need to give Steam the rights to sell it. I saw a comment about the infamous Steam sales, but iTunes also has similar sales on albums from $11.99 to $6.99. All in all, if a player was added in which the gamer could add files or folders to a player for Steam...that would be a nice feature, but also the embedding of the player would have to be hammered out efficiently to prevent crashes. The publishers of music and if Steam decided to sell music...that would be up to those two entities. Lastly, I don't see it happening unless the software is made EXTREMELY well, and if sales of music occur, artists agreeing to sell their music on Steam while having contracts and possible deals with other media sharing companies I.E. Amazon, Apple, etc.

Steam is pretty solid overall. I haven't had any problems with it. I mean the only time I've ever had any issues using it were using the overlay in 3rd party games like League of Legends or something to that effect. If Valve were to develop a music store, they'd pull it off well.

Adding an extra service like this to Steam would sound completely strange, every time I think about it, I know I'd buy music using this service. And yeah sure, maybe they could easily offer lossless formats too, doing so would set them apart from most other online shops. A lot of the expanded ideas don't necessarily have to come to fruitition, but the basic idea of Steam acting as a Music shop as well as a game shop appeals to me, and it also appeals to people I've talked to IRL.

I also know that there are other stores, such as Amazon, FiXT, and of course iTunes (*barf*). In the end, though. If given the choice I'd purchase my stuff from Steam and FiXT exclusively. (FiXT because I've supported them for over a year, and I will continue to do so).

I know if Steam was to offer music, including music from games, they wouldn't have to advertise it all that much. They could cater to the current userbase and make money off of us to start with. And maybe through word of mouth, Steam Music would grow.

 

[RobCoxxy]

ever heard of FixT?
Essentially, music website/label created by Klayton Celldweller.

Hosts a bunch of music as well as individual's uploads and remixes of available artists.
And a f*ckload of official remix competitions.

So ya, been done.

 

[Zer_]

ever heard of FixT?
Essentially, music website/label created by Klayton Celldweller.

Hosts a bunch of music as well as individual's uploads and remixes of available artists.
And a f*ckload of official remix competitions.

So ya, been done.

You'll notice that I referenced them in this thread. I also wrote a review of Blue Stahli's debut album earlier this week.

I got most of my ideas from them. The idea to sell music on Steam is mine, though.

 

[RobCoxxy]

ever heard of FixT?
Essentially, music website/label created by Klayton Celldweller.

Hosts a bunch of music as well as individual's uploads and remixes of available artists.
And a f*ckload of official remix competitions.

So ya, been done.

You'll notice that I referenced them in this thread. I also wrote a review of Blue Stahli's debut album earlier this week.

I got most of my ideas from them. The idea to sell music on Steam is mine, though.

Ah, my bad. Half asleep here. :')
But yeah, Blue Stahli is pretty schweet.

I don't know whether people would use a music service on steam however.

Just as steam is the digital download for games king, itunes, spotify et al are the music choice.