The journal's first editor, Eva Judd O'Meara, wrote in the first issue: “The notes were intended for a chorus of voices from all the music libraries in the group, but so far none have joined in, and one drones on alone, lamenting the other parts that were expected to give volume and tone to the performance” [3] Those first 23 pages of mimeographed notes included an article on the need to create subdivisions to the card catalog in order to accommodate the many works from or about Johann Sebastian Bach as well as a humorous column entitled "Wrong Notes" listing the common mistakes made by music students.

That first issue in 1943 celebrated the switch from "long, unwieldy, seemingly less permanent mimeographed sheets" of the first series to type-set pages, allowing for more space for articles as well as advertisements.

[7] Article subjects include book reviews about modern musicians and groups like Johnny Cash or Nine Inch Nails, as well as classical composers such as Béla Bartók or Chopin.

In later years, book reviews have been divided into sections: Times, Places, Peoples; American Highways and Byways; Twentieth Century Musics; Late Romantics; and Composers.

Furthermore, the journal continues to publish articles pertaining to its focus and concern for issues related to the field of music librarianship, including collection development, concerns about digital media, scholarship in the field and bibliographies of musical and music-related works.