Throughout the years, the American Music Center has been a consistent leader in pioneering new programs and services to support and advance the field of new American music. Founded in 1939 by Marion Bauer, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Otto Luening, Harrison Kerr, and Quincy Porter, the original mission, as created by these six composers, performers, publishers, and educators was:

...to foster and encourage the composition of contemporary (American) music and to promote its production, publication, distribution and performance in every way possible throughout the Western Hemisphere.

To meet this mandate, the founders created a library of scores and recordings to address significant problems of access and promotion and an information-gathering and distribution service to provide difficult-to-obtain data necessary for the promotion and of contemporary music.

The 1940s saw substantial growth in the library and information services offered by AMC, as well as the development of a non-profit music publishing and recording operation. In the 1950s, the Center created the first significant national program to commission, perform, and record new American orchestral works. This groundbreaking model for consortium commissioning—a three-year program—resulted in 18 commissioned orchestral works, 72 performances, 12 recordings, and a Pulitzer Prize for John La Montaine's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. AMC also created a syndicated radio show introducing contemporary American composers and their works to a wider audience and began publishing the first formal newsletter for contemporary music, Music Today.

In the early '60s, AMC created the Composer Assistance Program, the first and only national program to provide funding to composers for extracting and copying parts from their scores, as well as other expenses related to preparing materials for a premiere performance.

Meet The Composer began as a program at AMC in the 1970s. Its main purpose was to provide funding that would allow composers to interact with audiences at live performances of their music. This radical concept—that composers should be paid as professionals—was sheltered and nurtured first at the American Music Center at a time when no other organization would give this concept a home.

In the 1980s, the Center created American Music Week, a national new music festival supported by a network of corporations, foundations, and the NEA. The '80s also brought the first issues of Opportunity Update, as well as the creation of the Jazz Library and Information Support Program.

In the early '90s, AMC pioneered one of the first music industry sites on the internet and has continued to attract a large number of visitors from all over the world seeking information and connection to a larger community.

On May 1, 1999, the American Music Center ushered in a new era of advocacy and communication for American music with the launch of NewMusicBox, the nation's first-ever online publication dedicated exclusively to the field of new American classical music and jazz. Since then, NewMusicBox, winner of the first ASCAP-Deems Taylor Internet Award, has filled the need for a national forum dedicated to contemporary American concert music and provided a platform for the exchange of ideas about new music.

On October 9, 2002, the Center continued to deepen its online presence with the creation of NewMusicJukebox (now the online library portion of Explore American Music), a searchable online database of works by American composers that provides immediate access to scores, performance information, and streaming audio samples. Then, on March 16, 2007, the Center further expanded its ability to disseminate new American music with the launch of Counterstream Radio. Drawing on AMC's substantial library of recorded music, the station streams influential American music of many pedigrees 24 hours a day.

In early part of the 21st century, the Center's original mandate is remarkably fresh and appropriate; the fundamental vision and mission remain virtually unchanged; and, in response to our current cultural climate, we remain dedicated to building a national community for new American music.