issued the folk sampler Fantastic Folk (1968) before the more rock-oriented Select Elektra (1968). However, these British discs were full price issues. Budget samplers in Europe CBS’s The Rock Machine Turns You On, Liberty Records' Gutbucket, Warner Bros.' The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook (first of the long-standing Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders series), and Island Records' You Can All Join In were the first samplers issued in the UK and Europe at a discount price, 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 (e.g. Chiswick Records and Stiff Records in the UK) 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. Since then, the increased influence of the World Wide Web as a medium for distributing content has made the sampler album format increasingly redundant. References Album types