Founded in 1980, the Sarasota Music Archive has been saving and sharing all kinds of music and historical musical instruments and artifacts for free with the public. With an enviable collection of over 300,000 items, including vinyl records, historical sheet music, antique music books and scores, rare and unusual instruments, and much more, the archive hosts regular exhibitions through the community.

The Music Archives also sponsors free, and open to the public, multimedia presentations, lectures, and live music performances that may be unaccessible by many because of ticket pricing.

The archive also maintains a shop that sells all types of music related items. NARM members are entitled to 50% off in the store.