The first three Emerson Lake and Palmer albums (self titled, Tarkus and Pictures at an Exhibition) are arguably the first true Rock Mini LPs. They were released on 21st September 1994.

These had been preceded by a much earlier Lotus and a US release of some Rolling Stones albums repackaged for Japan a few short months before these. Neither of these earlier releases was true to the original vinyl although the Stones came close.

The earliest true Minis were two series of MCA Jazz releases from March 1994 (MVCZ-26 to MVCZ-45) including this example: Death and The Flower.

In late 2008 Caroline Records in the USA released a number of albums by the following artists: UFO, Jethro Tull, Quicksilver Messenger, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, The Raspberries, Kate Bush, Blondie, The Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Van Der Graaf Generator (full list below).

Unlike the suspect Universal releases these are 100% Japanese. The only difference between these and the Japanese (apart from being as much as 50% cheaper) is a sticker on the bar code of the obi.

As at March 2009 most of these are still available at Amazon.

Die cutting of the cover image or inserts is probably the most common technique employed to create gimmick covers. It's probably also in most cases the cheapest.

There are thousands of die cut covers. Here are a few of the more popular and best known releases.

This fake Led Zeppelin 40th Anniversary appears to be made in China. You would find it hard to pick a sealed copy of this as being anything other than than the real deal.

Inside it is also remarkably similar but has some significant, obvious differences in packaging including: (a) the CD comes in a flimsy loose fitting bag (b) Physical Graffiti has no cut out windows and (c) III (3) has no turning wheel.

The CDs also have the tell tale extra ring in the middle but this is much better disguised than usual.

Unusually for fakes these have the catalogue number and an IFPI code (CC 303) on the silver side of the disc.

Recorded in early July 1973 this album took nearly a year to make it to streets.

One of the most elaborate record covers ever produced and probably the most elaborate so far to make it to mini LP release. It is nearly impossible to capture the splendour of this on a web site but we shall try...