[First paragraph of the editors’ introduction, in lieu of an abstract] A distinct if diverse musical research area has begun to emerge in recent years. While there is enough common ground to define it as a research field, its objects and themes are not yet delineated, its methodologies are divergent and multi-disciplinary, and its key players dispersed over many areas. These developments and their critical discursive exchanges contribute to the emergence—and contestation—of materialist approaches to music. This area in music research currently takes the shape of an intellectual and creative meeting point, an interest shared by music and sound researchers of differing backgrounds. One can trace in contemporary musical materialisms various genealogies arising from theoretical traditions—prominently including Marxian, Deleuzian, Spinozan, and feminist and queer theoretical perspectives—as well as from contributors working within historical musicology, compositional and performance practice-research, popular music studies, ethnomusicology, and beyond.