SPV GmbH is an independent German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

.

Founded on January 1, 1984

1984 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1984.-Janury-March:*January 21 – "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood reaches number one in the UK singles chart, despite being banned by the BBC; it spends a total of forty-two weeks in the Top 40.*January 27 – Michael Jackson's...

, it has slowly grown to be one of the largest independent distributors and record labels worldwide.

It also has several sublabels that it produces and distributes, including the heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 labels Steamhammer, Synthetic Symphony, Oblivion, SPV Recordings/SPV America and Audiopharm.

Artists

SPV's most successful artists include Sepultura

Sepultura

Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte, formed in 1984. The band was a major force in the death metal, thrash metal and ultimately groove metal realms during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their later experiments melding nu metal, hardcore punk and industrial.Sepultura...

, Kreator

Kreator

Kreator is a thrash metal band from Essen, Germany, formed in 1978, but formalized in 1982 under the name Tormentor. They originally performed a speed metal style with Venom influences. Their style of music is similar to their compatriots Destruction and Sodom, the other two big German thrash metal...

, Klaus Schulze

Klaus Schulze

Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades.-1970s:In...

, Rhapsody of Fire

Rhapsody of Fire

Rhapsody of Fire is an Italian symphonic power metal band led by Alex Staropoli. Since forming in 1993, the band has released eight studio albums, one live album, two EPs, and a live DVD...

, Sodom

Sodom (band)

Sodom is a German Thrash metal trio from Gelsenkirchen, formed in 1981.Along with the bands Kreator and Destruction, Sodom is considered one of the "big three" of Teutonic thrash metal...

, Evildead

Evildead

Evildead is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1987. The band was originally composed of members of two former bands, Agent Steel and Abattoir, including guitarist Juan Garcia, who is their only permanent member member...

, Angra

Angra (band)

Angra is a Brazilian metal band from São Paulo, Brazil known for its symphonic interludes, highly technical instrumental playing and Brazilian regional elements.- Biography :...

, Eric Burdon

Eric Burdon

Eric Victor Burdon is an English singer-songwriter best known as a founding member and vocalist of rock band The Animals, and the funk rock band War and for his aggressive stage performance...

, Blackmore's Night

Blackmore's Night

Blackmore's Night is an English-American traditional folk rock duo led by Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night .-Early:...

, Whitesnake

Whitesnake

Whitesnake are an English rock band, founded in 1978 by David Coverdale after his departure from his previous band, Deep Purple. The band's early material has been compared by critics to Deep Purple, but by the mid 1980s they had moved to a more commercial hard rock style...

, Motörhead, Doro

Doro (musician)

Dorothee Pesch , popularly known as Doro Pesch or Doro, is a female rock vocalist, formerly of the German heavy metal band Warlock ....

, Helloween

Helloween

Helloween is a German power metal band founded in the mid 1980s by members of Iron Fist and Powerfool. The band was a pioneering force in the European Power Metal movement and their second and third studio albums, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt...

, Kamelot

Kamelot

Kamelot is an American symphonic power metal band from Tampa, Florida. The band was formed by Thomas Youngblood and Richard Warner in 1991. Norwegian vocalist Roy Khan joined for the album Siége Perilous, and shared song-writing duties with Youngblood until his departure in April 2011.As of 2010,...

, Iced Earth

Iced Earth

Iced Earth is an American heavy metal band from Tampa, Florida. Originally formed under the name "Purgatory" in 1984, Iced Earth has released a total of ten studio albums, one live album, three EP's, two compilations and boxsets...

, Moonspell

Moonspell

Moonspell is a Portuguese gothic metal band from Brandoa, Lisbon. Formed in 1992, the group released their first EP Under the Moonspell in 1994, a year before the release of their first album Wolfheart...

, Saxon

Saxon (band)

Saxon are an English heavy metal band, formed in 1976 in Barnsley, Yorkshire. As front-runners of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, they had 8 UK Top 40 albums in the 1980s including 4 UK Top 10 albums. Saxon also had numerous singles in the Top 20 singles chart...

, Monster Magnet

Monster Magnet

Monster Magnet is an American stoner rock band. Hailing from Red Bank, New Jersey, the group was founded by Dave Wyndorf , John McBain and Tim Cronin...

, Type O Negative

Type O Negative

Type O Negative was a gothic metal band from Brooklyn, New York City. The band also incorporated elements of doom metal and thrash metal. Their dramatic lyrical emphasis on themes of romance, depression, and death resulted in the nickname "The Drab Four"...

, Skinny Puppy

Skinny Puppy

Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial musical group, formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1982. The group is widely considered to be the founders of the electro-industrial genre....

 and Judas Priest

Judas Priest

Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...

.

Insolvency

The managing partner, Manfred Schütz, decided to submit an application to commence insolvency proceedings on 25 May 2009 – roughly equivalent to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the USA. In response to this, on 27 May 2009, the District Court of Hannover appointed the attorney Manuel Sack as the provisional insolvency administrator. According to Schütz, together with Sack, the management of SPV GmbH will not only carry on business operations, but also continue working in the areas of production and distribution in the usual way.
After a substantial resizing of its business and a partnership venture agreement with Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....

, which obtained the rights for some of the German label's main artists and for a part of the catalog, SPV went back into production with a new staff at the end of 2009.