Just wondering... Will we have to select music files to be linked to automatically start when a map is loaded (as in previous versions), or will music run independently of maps?

I can foresee situations where it would be really helpful if music playing was not affected by maps loading. For example, suppose that map A normally plays song A, and map B normally plays song B. But perhaps there is part of the story where you want song C to start playing in map A after something is triggered, and to continue playing undisrupted when you switch to map B.

For that situation, you'd most likely want to use the Startup Script. That way you control what happens when the map loads.