Originally founded in 1901, NAMM is headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and represents 15,000 global member companies and individual professionals.

[2] The organization's first annual trade show and convention was held in Baltimore, Maryland the following year with membership dues at $5.00 per store.

[10] The NAMM Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that advances active participation in music-making by supporting scientific research, philanthropic giving and public service programs.

[16][17] Also beginning in 1998, the Foundation began an annual recognition of schools and their districts with its Best Communities for Music Education award.

[4] In 1993, NAMM funded the research by physicist Gordon Shaw and psychologist and cellist Frances Rauscher at the University of California Irvine into what’s been called the Mozart effect — which suggested classical music could have a short-term benefit on cognitive performance.

[7] Beginning annually in 2005, NAMM has coordinated the Music Education Advocacy D.C. Fly-In, which brings a coalition of NAMM members together in Washington D.C. to meet with members of the U.S. Congress in support of funding music education in public schools as outlined in the Every Student Succeeds Act.

[20][21][22][23] NAMM has also organized coalitions to advocate for the music products industry in relation to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES.