Grove Music Online is recognized as the preeminent authority on music and is the most widely used music reference work in the academic and professional community. The online version contains the full text of the 28 volume print second edition (25 million words), including notated musical examples. In addition to sophisticated search capability, it also includes links to digital sound files and to related sites. The online version is scheduled for quarterly updates to biographies, works lists, and bibliographies.

Those published from 1980 forward also include 350-word abstracts, written by the author. Citations for master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts. Of the 1.5 million titles listed, UMI offers over a million in full text. For these titles, the database citation includes UMI's order number.