
The folks at Valve announced that its Steam Music Player is now out of beta and is available for all Steam members to enjoy. Through the Steam Music Player, you can listen to your own collection of tunes while playing games -- just use the Shift+Tab overlay. This eliminates the need to exit a full screen session or otherwise switch over to load up your songs or to control playback options.
"Point Steam to the MP3s on your computer, then browse your collection of albums and artists. You’ll also find your Steam Soundtracks DLC in your Steam Music library when the associated base game is installed," Valve explained in a blog post. "Listen to albums, queue up mixes, and create playlists you love, right in your Steam library. Best of all, it’s all available right within the Steam Overlay, so you can control playback without leaving your game. The Steam Music library and player consist of all the basics you need to enjoy your music without switching tasks."
To get you going, Valve is making several game soundtracks available for free, provided you own the base game. And if you don't, you can buy the corresponding game for 75 percent off. Games included in the promotion are Half-Life, Half-Life Two, Half-Life Two: Episode One, Half-Life Two: Episode 2, Portal, and Portal 2.
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