In its latest update, Steam has made it so that you can have the soundtrack of a game without owning the game itself. You’ll also be able to manage them directly from Steam. You can also have all your soundtracks be in a special “music” directory, rather than having them being in the directory of their respective games. With the new update, soundtracks can also be available in higher quality formats like FLAC or WAV, in addition to the usual MP3. They can also contain other stuff that you’d expect from a standard music album, like album art or liner notes.
As it was previously, soundtracks on Steam were sold as game DLC. This meant that you have to own the game to own the sountrack. You also needed to have the game installed before you download its soundtrack. And once downloaded, you can only access them via the DLC section of the game in your Steam library, or search for them in your file directory manually. But, as mentioned at the start, this will only apply to newer games. For older games to have their soundtrack as accessible, their developers will have to convert them to the new format. There’s also always the unfortunate possibility that older games don’t get the modern touch-up. (Source: Steam via PC Gamer)
