Regarding Soundtracks (missing mp3/album art, includes extra files, store page, support info)

[BOLL]

Hello!

Thanks a lot for creating the Soundtrack content type here on Steam, before this I almost never bothered with soundtrack DLC as it also required the game to be installed, which meant after beating and uninstalling the game the music was also gone.

There are a few things that could be better though, so I’ve made a numbered list of my collected thoughts here.

1. Single depot soundtracks: We get a Steam option to download high quality audio or not, which is nice when bandwidth or storage is limited. Even with high quality downloads turned off there are soundtracks that still provide .wav audio or .flac which takes up a lot of space, examples: This War of Mine, Gremlins Inc, My Memory of Us. Reading up on the docs I’m guessing they use a single depot instead of multiples, and I guess this is up to the publisher, but would be nice if it was automatic.
   
2. Missing mp3 files: There are also soundtracks that only provide .flac (Arizona Sunshine) or .wav files (Spellforce 2, Ruiner, Divinity Original Sin 2). It would be awesome if the Steam backend could automatically encode .mp3 files for soundtracks that lack them.
   
3. Non-music files: There are soundtracks that download a range of other files, perhaps as they are converted DLC packs. In addition to the checkbox for high quality audio, there should also be ones for artbooks (.pdf in Creaks, Distance, Samorost 3), archived HQ audio (.zip in Redout), video (.mp4 in A Night in Berlin), images (.png, .gif in Dino Run DX). Or a single checkbox for “Only download mp3 files” to reduce the number of options.
   
4. Cover art: Soundtracks can lack cover art in their .mp3 files. This is noticeable in audio players that display the album art, which is something I enjoy, thus I also miss it when they are missing.
   
   1. Use the library graphics to generate cover art for the above .mp3 files, the logo on top of a gradient based on the legend art, or if those are missing, something akin to the cover art generated from the old banner in the library.
      
   2. Said generation of cover art could also be added to already existing .mp3 files that lack cover art even if the files themselves were provided.
      
   3. And if automation is not enough, generate the cover and make it an option to adjust it and/or apply it to the files in the soundtrack.
5. Store Page Button: When looking at a soundtrack in the library, the “View Store Page” button does nothing, or dumps me on the main store page if the soundtrack cannot be bought anymore. I expect this button to, for the soundtracks that still have a page, go to their actual store page.
   
6. Support Info: In the library there is also a button to “View Support Page”, some soundtracks have zero contact information for reporting any of the above mentioned issues, even if the game the soundtrack is associated with has those details. It might be an idea to lift some of the details for the game and use those for the soundtrack as well if nothing is supplied there.

That’s it! I am also starting to email a few developers so they can fix their soundtracks, hopefully they care enough to do so!

[BOLL]

Right, as a follow-up after noticing a few things.

1. No need to generate album art as it seems every soundtrack has a graphic in the store by default, so would be a quick affair to embed that at least in generated mp3 files.
   
2. Games I own and might have already beaten and uninstalled gets a soundtrack, I am clueless, would be nice to have a list on the front page of the store or somewhere with "Soundtracks for your games", unless that already exists.
   
3. It's really annoying to get soundtracks listed on the soundtracks page that still require the full game. That should be a warning somewhere before I try to pay for it. And no, usually I'm not interested in the game, only the soundtrack. I have ended up buying some games just to get their music though but that's when the bundle for both is cheap enough.