| Founded: | 1 January 1984 |
| Founder: | Manfred Schütz |
| Parent: | Napalm Records |
| Distributor: | SPV (Germany) (1984–present) Season of Mist/Modulor (France) Suburban Records (Benelux) Musikvertrieb AG (Switzerland) Hoanzl (Austria) Border Music (Nordics) PIAS (Spain) Audioglobe (Italy) Compact (Portugal) Mystic (Eastern Europe) Soyuz Music (Russia) H-Music (Hungary) MGM Distribution (Australia) Diskunion (Japan) The Orchard (Digital Distribution Worldwide) |
| Genre: | Metal, rock, alternative, pop |
| Country: | Germany |
| Location: | Hanover |
| SPV GmbH | |
SPV GmbH (short for Schallplatten Produktion und Vertrieb GmbH, "Vinyl Production and Distribution Company") is a German independent record label. Founded on 1 January 1984, it has slowly grown to be one of the largest independent distributors and record labels worldwide.[1]
It has several sub-labels that it produces and distributes, including the labels Steamhammer (heavy metal, hard rock), Long Branch Records (alternative, indie, progressive rock, progressive metal, metalcore), Oblivion (darkwave, gothic), SPV Recordings (pop, rock), Cash Machine Records (hip hop), and Synthetic Symphony (industrial).
In November 2020, SPV was acquired by Napalm Records.[2]
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 US 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.[3] 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.[4]