Its founder was John Christian Freund (1848–1924), who with Milton Weil, also founded The Music Trades magazine in 1893.

Musical America subsequently began diversifying with articles about jazz, dance, radio, and records.

Trade Publications, Inc., filed for bankruptcy in 1929; and, in a bankruptcy sale on July 19, 1929, John Majeski, Weil's former assistant, purchased four of the six magazines for $45,200: (i) Musical America, (ii) The Music Trades, (iii) The Barbers' Journal, and (iv) Beauty Culture.

ABC continued this publishing arrangement until 1986 when ABC decided it needed to revive Musical America as a separate monthly publication[10] (which later became bimonthly) to fight back against the loss of readership caused by the founding of a new competing classic music publication by a James R. Oestreich called Opus.

However, Ritterman said he was going to continue to publish the lucrative Annual Directory, a separate publication that followed the magazine in its journey through several change of ownership.

Primedia sold Musical America as part of its directories division to Commonwealth Business Media, Inc. in October 2000.

[19][20] Musical America has been owned and published by Performing Arts Resources, LLC, of New Jersey, since February 2013.

Bloch's work, America, an Epic Rhapsody, was premiered simultaneously on December 20, 1928, in six American cities: San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Providence, New York, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles.

[22] On July 29, 1929, seven months after the spectacular success of the premier, Musical America was sold in a bankruptcy sale to John Majeski.