This is an introductory chapter to The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music, and the practical, historical, philosophical, and cultural perspectives that it covers. This chapter outlines the structure and scope of the book, provides some background and motivation for its focus, covers points of terminology, and summarizes the development of the field in the modern era. It then signposts the following chapters and relates them to one another in terms of some of the key issues that are covered. As algorithmic music is a fast-developing field, the chapter then outlines contemporary directions in order to look forward to the next steps in both research and practice. The chapter concludes with further signposting, this time to literature which may be read in partnership with the present volume.