It began with efforts of the state's lieutenant governor Zell Miller to attract the music industry to Georgia.

In 1999, the second phase of the museum, The Billy Watson Music Factory, an interactive and interpretive exhibit space for pre-K through elementary students, opened.

[1] The Georgia Music Hall of Fame's permanent exhibit space was designed to resemble a Georgia town where venues such as the Jazz and Swing Club, Vintage Vinyl, and Rhythm & Blues Revue house artifacts, interpretive text, and audio-visual elements.

Temporary exhibits included "Keeps Calling Me Home: A Gram Parsons Retrospective", "Let Freedom Sing: Music and the Civil Rights Movement" and '"Otis Redding: I've Got Dreams to Remember", named "Museum Exhibition of the Year" in 2008 by the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries.

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