Orfeo introduced a new financial model for the music industry that made all investment to the label tax-deductible.
[5] Despite getting a great catalogue of artists from the start, the costs of operations were excessive and the label got caught up in additional fundraisings that sunk its finances and doomed its spectacular launch.
[3] In December 1985, F. Axel Mehrle was charged with fraud and embezzlement relating to the bankruptcy of Orfeo, and a warrant for his arrest was issued.
[3] It has released many classical own productions with artists as Carlos Kleiber, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Rafael Kubelik, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Eichhorn, Christian Thielemann, Andris Nelsons, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (both as singer and conductor), Jessye Norman, Julia Varady, Margaret Price, Lucia Popp, Diana Damrau, Edita Gruberova, Grace Bumbry, Brigitte Fassbaender, Agnes Baltsa, Carlo Bergonzi, Peter Schreier, Piotr Beczala, Renato Bruson, Bernd Weikl, Kurt Moll, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Josef Bulva, Oleg Maisenberg, Mischa Maisky, Julius Berger, Karl Leister, Aurèle Nicolet etc.
Orfeo owns a well-known sub-label "ORFEO D'OR", publishing legendary live performances from the archives of the Salzburg Festival, the Bayreuth Festival, the Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra etc.