Genre Heavy metal Location Hannover Founder Manfred Schütz Parent organization IN-motion AG | Country of origin Germany Founded 1984 | |
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Distributor(s) Sony Music (Germany)
(2009-present) Artists Motörhead, Sodom, Kreator, Freedom Call, Helloween Albums Living Like a Runaway, The Glorious Burden, 25 & Alive Boneshaker, Between the Walls, One Cold Winter's Night Profiles | ||
SPV GmbH (also known as Schallplatten Produktion und Vertrieb GmbH) is an independent German record label.
Contents
Founded on 1 January 1984, 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 labels Steamhammer, Synthetic Symphony, Oblivion, SPV Recordings/SPV America and Audiopharm.
Artists
SPV's most successful artists include Sepultura, Arena, Kreator, Klaus Schulze, Rhapsody of Fire, Sodom, Evildead, Angra, Eric Burdon, Blackmore's Night, Whitesnake, Motörhead, Doro, Helloween, Kamelot, Iced Earth, Moonspell, Anne Clark, Vicious Rumors, Saxon, Pro-Pain, Monster Magnet, Type O Negative, Skinny Puppy and Judas Priest.
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 and administration in the UK. 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 would 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, which obtained the rights for some of the German label's main artists and for part of the catalogue, SPV went back into production with a new staff at the end of 2009.