American label, Monitor Records is mostly known for its Music of the World (3) series of releases, but has more than 250 folk and classical music recordings in its catalogue. In 1956, Michael Stillman (during this time he was working at Leeds Music Corp.) and his business partner Rose Rubin started Monitor Records in New York City, to fill a gap they perceived in the music available to the American public—music from the then-Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc, and other parts of the world.

Monitor Records were available through the Diners Club record club from 1959 to 1961, an arrangement made out of "desperation" by Monitor management according to Rubin. Monitor releases first became available on reel-to-reel tapes in 1963 through an agreement with Musictapes, Inc. That year Monitor became distributed worldwide through Transglobal Music. In 1966, Monitor Collectors Series was established as a "budget" series and focused on baroque music.

The earliest pressings were made with a solid green or standard yellow label with black text and were pressed by Adrian Associates Inc.. Later pressings were made on solid grey/yellow labels with red text (usually by Presswell). Runouts can often be different even on pressings with the same label colors. Mono variants were usually cut by David Hancock.