The modern period (1800–1500) saw important innovations as philosophy of music moved in dramatically different directions. The first innovation was the incorporation of philosophy of music into philosophical systems, either absolute idealist or Marxist. These philosophers also held that music provides important insights into reality. In this stream of philosophy of music are found the seeds of Continental philosophy of music. The other, diametrically opposed, development was the rapid rise of formalist approaches to philosophy of music. These writers stressed the autonomy of musical beauty. A third stream within modern philosophy of music is continuous with earlier thinking about music. It opposed formalism without adopting a grand weltanschauung. Ontology of musical works emerges as a topic for philosophical discussion. Thinkers discussed include Hegel, Schelling, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Nietzsche, Ernst Bloch, Adorno, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Nicolai Hartmann, Carroll C. Pratt, Susanne Langer, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, Vladimir Jankélévitch, Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Hanslick, Edmund Gurney, Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), R. G. Collingwood and Roman Ingarden.

The contemporary period (since 1950) has seen a complete rupture between the Continental and analytic schools in philosophy of music. Continental figures have focused on music’s relationship to its context. Feminists have investigated the impact of oppression of women on music. Analytic philosophers have focused on the relationship between music and emotion, and on how this relationship bears on questions about the value of music. The division between formalists and anti-formalists has persisted into the contemporary period. Questions about the ontology of music have been widely debated. Popular music has received increased attention. Figures discussed include Susan McClary, Heide Göttner-Abendroth, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Attali, O. K. Bouwsma, John Hospers, Alan Tormey, Nelson Goodman, Peter Kivy, Stephen Davies, David Davies, Malcolm Budd, Andy Hamilton, Jerrold Levinson, Edward T. Cone, Leonard B. Meyer, Jenefer Robinson, Roger Scruton, Kendall Walton, Theodore Gracyk, Andrew Kania, Monroe Beardsley, Gilles Deleuze, Richard Wollheim, Lydia Goehr, Julian Dodd and Nichlas Wolterstorff.