The Global Music Archive is a multi-media reference archive and resource center for traditional and popular song, music, and dance of Africa and the Americas. It is a public facility that promotes education in African and American traditional and popular music through its own activities and by supporting the activities of others. The archive is housed within the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library in Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. It includes public rooms for the study of materials, and an audio and video listening and viewing facilities. 

The GMA’s primary mission is to provide access to sound recordings and images of indigenous music from communities in Africa and the Americas. Founded in 2003 by Gregory Barz, Associate Professor of Musicology (Ethnomusicology) at Vanderbilt University and the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library, the GMA launched its first database in 2004 with the Digital Collection of East African Recordings, which consisted of over 1,600 discrete musical performances recorded by an East African ethnomusicologist, Centurio Balikoowa.

Since that time, a number of smaller collections have been added from different cultural communities including American Appalachia and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Global Music Archive (GMA) at Vanderbilt University is a collaboration between the Blair School of Music and the University Libraries.