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Sampler (record)

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A sampler is a type of of compilation album offered at a reduced price to showcase a selection of artists signed to a particular record label. The format became popular in the late 1960s as record labels sought to promote artists whose work was primarily available in album rather than single format, and therefore had little opportunity to gain exposure through singles-dominated radio airplay.

CBS’s The Rock Machine Turns You On, Liberty Records' Gutbucket and Island Records' You Can All Join In were the first samplers, setting the standard for those to follow. Many of the most important and innovative folk and rock artists of the time featured on the samplers of their respective record labels, particularly in the UK, and as a result their work reached an audience which would have otherwise been inaccessible. Amongst the most well regarded, and subsequently collectable, were those from Island Records, CBS, Decca Records, Liberty Records, Vertigo Records and Harvest Records. By the end of the 1970s, however, the format became less relevant. The rise of indie rock labels and bands in the late 1970s and early 1980s revitalised the sampler as a marketing tool, but the format was all but dead by 1985^[1]. Since then, the increased influence of the World Wide Web as a medium for distributing content has made the sampler album format increasingly redundant.