Spinefarm | |
---|---|
Parent company | Universal Music Group [1] |
Founded | 1990 [2] |
Founder | Riku Pääkkönen |
Distributor(s) | PIAS Group [3] |
Genre | |
Country of origin | Finland |
Official website | spinefarmrecords |
Spinefarm Records is an international record label. Founded in Finland in 1990, Spinefarm was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2002. [1]
Spinefarm Records began as a mailorder distribution company, founded by Riku Pääkkönen. The company evolved into a record label for Finnish acts such as Nightwish, Children of Bodom, and Sonata Arctica. [2] Since 2002, Spinefarm has been part of Universal Music Group, but operates as an independent business unit. [4]
Pääkkönen sold the original Ranka publishing catalog to Warner/Chappell Music in 2008, including several songs by Spinefarm acts like Children Of Bodom, Finntroll, and Nightwish. [5]
Former Roadrunner Records President Jonas Nachsin was appointed Spinefarm's General Manager - Worldwide in 2013. [6] Spinefarm/UMG acquired the English label Candlelight Records in late 2015. [7] In 2017, Spinefarm Music Group announced the launch of the country, blues, and southern rock-oriented Snakefarm Records. [8]
As of 2024, Spinefarm Music Group includes the Spinefarm, Candlelight, and Snakefarm labels.
Parlophone Records Limited is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited, which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited (EMI). George Martin joined Parlophone in 1950 as assistant to Oscar Preuss, the label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of recordings, including by comedian Peter Sellers, pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith.
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee. The band was formed in 1996 by lead songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former lead singer Tarja Turunen. The band soon picked up drummer Jukka Nevalainen, and then bassist Sami Vänskä after the release of their debut album, Angels Fall First (1997). In 2001, Vänskä was replaced by Marko Hietala, who also took over the male vocalist role previously filled by Holopainen or guest singers. Although Nightwish have been prominent in their home country since Angels Fall First, they did not achieve wider success until the release of the albums Oceanborn (1998), Wishmaster (2000) and Century Child (2002).
Universal Music Group N.V. is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its operational headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California. The biggest music company in the world, it is one of the "Big Three" record labels, along with Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group. Tencent acquired ten percent of Universal Music Group in March 2020 for €3 billion and acquired an additional ten percent stake in January 2021. Pershing Square Holdings later acquired ten percent of UMG prior to its IPO on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. The company went public on September 21, 2021, at a valuation of €46 billion.
Machinae Supremacy is a Swedish/Finnish band that combines modern heavy metal, power metal and alternative rock with chiptunes. Self-defined as "SID metal", many of their songs use a SidStation that features the SID chip of the Commodore 64. They have released 32 original recordings for free download on their site, with approximately 100,000 downloads a month.
Roadrunner Records is a Dutch–American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock music. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. Formerly seen as one of the most powerful independent metal labels of the 1980s and 1990s, it would eventually become a massive host of metal acts; most seen in Roadrunner United and the following live concert. Since then, the label had continued to put out major releases, though by the 2020s, most major acts had left the label and it had been acquired by Warner Brothers, being relegated to something much smaller than before.
Angels Fall First is the debut studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, originally released by Spinefarm Records on 30 September 1997 as a 500-copy limited edition. This edition is highly sought after by collectors and in 2012 a copy was sold for $1137.23 on eBay. It was subsequently released to the general public on 1 November, with four additional songs. The album was released in the US by Century Media in March 2001.
Hollywood Records is an American record label owned by the Disney Music Group which focuses on pop, rock, alternative, hip hop and country genres, also specializing in recordings for a more mature audience not suitable for the flagship Walt Disney Records label.
Hate Crew Deathroll is the fourth studio album by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, released in 2003 under the Century Media label. It is the final Children of Bodom album to be recorded with all five original members, as their original rhythm guitarist, Alexander Kuoppala, would leave the band in 2003. It was successful both in Europe and the USA, which is demonstrated by the appearance of the "Needled 24/7" music video on MTV2's Headbangers Ball. "Needled 24/7" also featured on the heavy metal documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and the 2012 horror comedy video game Lollipop Chainsaw.
The Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) was an American recording music unit, formed on December 31, 1998 by Universal Music Group. It consisted of labels created under the operations of Island Records and Def Jam Recordings. On April 1, 2014, Universal Music Group publicly announced the disbandment of the Island Def Jam Music Group, leaving IDJMG and its affiliated subsidiaries compelled as separate sister labels.
Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an imprint of the Universal Motown Republic Group, and was renamed Universal Republic Records after a reorganization in 2006 before going back to its original name in 2012.
"The Carpenter" is the debut single by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, the only from their debut album, Angels Fall First. This is the only Nightwish single to feature lead vocals by both Tarja Turunen and Tuomas Holopainen. It was performed live for the first time in over twenty years with Floor Jansen and Troy Donockley in 2018 during the Decades: World Tour.
Candlelight Records is a British record label based in London, founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bass guitarist Lee Barrett in 1993. The record label originally specialized in black metal, but quickly expanded to various other forms of heavy metal, extreme metal and hard rock, including death metal and melodic death metal, thrash metal, symphonic metal, metalcore, gothic rock, post-rock and post-metal.
CMC International was an American independent record label founded by Bill Cain and Tom Lipsky in 1991, focused mainly on classic rock, and classic heavy metal. The label was the haven of many hard rock, arena rock, thrash metal, glam metal, and AOR artists in the period when all the majors were investing all their financial efforts on grunge and alternative rock acts. In 1995 CMC started a partnership with BMG Entertainment, which in 1999 owned the majority of the company, with founder Tom Lipsky holding a minority stake.
Agonizer is a heavy metal band from Pyhäjärvi, Finland.
Sauna Open Air Metal Festival, shortly Sauna Open Air or just Sauna, was one of the largest music festivals dedicated only to heavy metal and related styles of rock music in the Nordic countries. It was first arranged in 2004 and takes place in the Ratinanniemi park in Tampere, Finland. From 8 June to 10 June 2006, over 20,000 people arrived to watch such bands as Cradle of Filth, Finntroll, Iggy & The Stooges, Lordi, Twisted Sister and W.A.S.P.
Dayseeker is an American post-hardcore band formed in Orange County, California, in 2012. The group consists of vocalist Rory Rodriguez, guitarist Gino Sgambelluri, bassist Ramone Valerio and drummer Zac Mayfield. They are currently signed to Spinefarm Records and have released six studio albums. Their most recent studio album, Replica, was released on April 19, 2024.
The following is a list of the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards winners.
UMG Philippines Inc. is a record label based in the Philippines and served as its regional branch of the multinational music corporation, Universal Music Group. Formerly known as MCA Music, the record label previously retained the now-discontinued MCA name on legal purposes because of a trademark dispute with an unrelated label known as Universal Records, which preempted the rights to the word "Universal" for recorded music in the Philippines. However, the company adopted the moniker "MCA/Universal", much like Universal Pictures' home video unit from 1990 to 1997, to simplify identification, even though no formal "Universal" branding is exercised. Despite the naming, the label is known outside the Philippines as Universal Music Philippines.