Five new songs are coming to Minecraft with the 1.20 'Trails & Tales' update

What you need to know

• Minecraft's 1.20 "Trails & Tales" update is progressing nicely, and is inching ever closer to a final release later this year.
• On Wednesday, Mojang Studios released a duo of preview builds — Minecraft: Java Edition Snapshot 23w17a and Minecraft Preview 1.20.0.22 — to players.
• The headlining feature of these builds is the addition of five new songs to the Minecraft soundtrack.
• Composed by Aaron Cherof, there are four ambient songs and one exclusively found on a rare music disc.

Wednesday often means new Minecraft builds for testing, and this week is no exception. This should be an exciting one for Minecraft players, as the snapshot and preview builds rolling out right now both include five brand-new songs.

The Minecraft soundtrack is positively legendary at this point, and expands with every major content update. It's a huge honor for composers to contribute to the track list, and Aaron Cherof (the composer behind Cobalt Core and Sunshine Heavy) can now add their name to the roster. Starting today, players can begin testing and listening to five new songs, which will officially come to Minecraft later this year as a part of the Minecraft 1.20 "Trails & Tales" update.

The five songs are A Familiar Room, Bromeliad, Crescent Dunes, Echo in the Wind, and Relic. The former four are new ambient songs when exploring certain biomes, like Cherry Groves, Jungles, Deserts, and Flower Forests. The latter, Relic, can only be found on an exclusive music disc. The Relic music disc can sometimes be discovered while doing archaeology. You can test all of these songs now in early Minecraft builds, but you can also find the entire new soundtrack on Spotify and other streaming platforms.

Of course, that's not all that's included in these test builds. Minecraft Preview 1.20.0.22 follows its impressive predecessor, which added shield customization via banners, contains a huge list of bug fixes and technical updates. There are also various improvements for Minecraft 1.20, including tweaks and expansions to Trail Ruins (where you can brush to your heart's content as part of the archaeology mechanics). This Minecraft Preview is heading to Xbox, Windows PC, Android, and iOS platforms.

Minecraft: Java Edition 23w17a is also rolling out at the same time to Windows PC players, and contains its own unique list of bug fixes and improvements. In addition to all of that and the new songs, however, the snapshot also includes seven new Advancements for players to unlock while playing the game. This is another sign that Minecraft's 1.20 update is nearing completion, and that one of the best Xbox games will soon be blessed with a plethora of new features and content.

In case you missed it, Minecraft Legends recently released as a unique action-strategy game with a co-op focus. In my Minecraft Legends review, I praised the game for the sheer fun offered during solo and online play, even though there is room for improvement in the latest Minecraft title.