New Age music, is a vaguely defined style of music that is generally quite melodic and often primarily instrumental. Defining certain groups or albums as New Age can be a source of contention among fans, since the borders of this genre are not well defined. Partly due to some artists' affiliation with New Age beliefs, many other artists and bands have specifically stated that they do not consider their own music to be New Age.

A large percentage of music described as New Age music is electronic and instrumental, frequently relying on sustained pads or long sequencer-based runs. Very long songs, up to 20 minutes and more, are not uncommon. Vocal arrangements and usage of acoustic instruments is less common (in many cases, high-quality samples are used instead of the latter). Recordings of naturally occurring sounds are sometimes used as an introduction to a track or throughout the piece. Said features also apply to many sub-genres of ambient music as well, and there is no boundary defined between ambient music and New Age music.