His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
created in 1901 by
The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russell Terrier dog named
Nipper
Nipper (1884 – September 1895) was a dog from Bristol, England, who served as the model for an 1898 painting by Francis Barraud titled ''His Master's Voice''. This image became one of the world's best known trademarks, the famous dog-and- gra ...
listening to a wind-up disc
gramophone and
tilting his head. In the original, unmodified 1898 painting, the dog was listening to a
cylinder phonograph. The painting was also famously used as the
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
and
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...
of the
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidia ...
, later known as
RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...
.
In the 1970s, an award was created which is a copy of the statue of the dog and gramophone, ''His Master's Voice'', cloaked in bronze, and was presented by the record company (
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
) to artists, music producers and composers in recognition of selling more than 1,000,000 recordings.
The painting
The trademark image comes from a painting by English artist
Francis Barraud
Francis James Barraud (16 June 1856 – 29 August 1924) was an English painter. He is best known for his work ''His Master's Voice'', one of the most famous commercial logos in the world, having inspired a music industry trademark used by corpora ...
titled ''His Master's Voice''. It was acquired from the artist in 1899 by the newly formed
Gramophone Company
The Gramophone Company Limited (The Gramophone Co. Ltd.), based in the United Kingdom and founded by Emil Berliner, was one of the early recording companies, the parent organisation for the ''His Master's Voice (HMV)'' label, and the European ...
and adopted as a trademark by the Gramophone Company's United States affiliate, the
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidia ...
.
The logo
In early 1899, Francis Barraud applied for copyright of the original painting using the descriptive working title ''Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph''. He was unable to sell the work to any cylinder phonograph company, but William Barry Owen, the American founder of the Gramophone Company in England, offered to purchase the painting under the condition that Barraud modify it to show one of their disc machines. Barraud complied and the image was first used on the company's catalogue from December 1899. As the trademark gained in popularity, several additional copies were subsequently commissioned from the artist for various corporate purposes.
In 1967, EMI converted the HMV label into an exclusive
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
label and dropped its
POP series of
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
. HMV's POP series artists' roster was moved to
Columbia Graphophone
Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom.
Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned company in 1922 in a manageme ...
and
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British 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 192 ...
and licensed American POP record deals to
Stateside Records
Stateside Records, styled as $tateside Records, is a British record label, owned by Warner Music Group and operates through its Parlophone and Warner Records imprints. Upon creation, it initially released licensed American recordings and is no ...
.
The globalised market for the
compact disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...
resulted in EMI abandoning the HMV label in favour of "
EMI Classics
EMI Classics was a record label founded by Thorn EMI in 1990 to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogues for internationally distributed classical music releases. After Thorn EMI demerged in 1996, its recorded musi ...
", a name that could be used worldwide; however, between 1988 and 1992
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey (; born 22 May 1959), known professionally as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then ...
's recordings were issued on the HMV label. The HMV/Nipper trademark is now owned by the retail chain in the UK. The formal trademark transfer from EMI took place in 2003. The old HMV classical music catalogue is now controlled by the
Warner Classics
Warner Classics is the classical music arm of Warner Music Group. The label began issuing new recordings under the Warner Classics banner in 1991. The company also includes the Erato Records, Teldec Records and NVC Arts labels. Based in France, W ...
unit of
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
. Most reissues of HMV pop material that EMI previously controlled are now reissued on Warner's
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British 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 192 ...
label. In the UK, Warner Classics's online presence was launched as 'Dog and Trumpet' on
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
,
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
,
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
in January 2017.
Nipper worldwide
On 1 April 2007, HMV announced that Gromit, the animated dog of ''
Wallace and Gromit
''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series c ...
'', would stand in for Nipper for a three-month period, promoting children's DVDs in its UK stores.
HMV
HMV shops in Australia, Ireland, and the UK also use the Nipper trademark. HMV applied for trademark status in order to use Nipper at HMV stores in Canada but in 2010 abandoned the application.
As of August 2006, there were over 400 HMV stores worldwide.
On 15 January 2013, HMV Group plc entered
receivership
In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
; stores in Ireland closed 16 January 2013 and were no longer accepting vouchers. The HMV website posted a receivership notice and no further online sales were made.
As of 28 December 2018, HMV has confirmed that it has called in KPMG as administrators and entered administration for the second time in six years.
On 5 February 2019, the Canadian retailer
Sunrise Records announced its acquisition of HMV Retail for an undisclosed amount (later reported to be £883,000). Sunrise planned to maintain the HMV chain and five
Fopp Fopp may refer to:
* "Fopp" (song), a 1975 song by the Ohio Players from ''Honey''
* ''Fopp'' (EP), a 1988 EP by Soundgarden, featuring the song of the same name
* '' Screaming Life/Fopp'', a 1990 compilation album by the American rock band Sound ...
stores, but immediately closed 27 locations. By late-February, HMV had reopened a number of stores (including 1 Fopp branch).
See also
*
List of HMV POP artists This is a list of artists whose records appeared on the His Master's Voice label, with the POP number prefix.
* The Ames Brothers
* Louis Armstrong
*Eddy Arnold
*Frankie Avalon
* The Blue-Belles
* Bernard Bresslaw
*Al Caiola
*Ray Charles
*Alma Coga ...
*
List of record labels
File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg
File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg
File:Bingola1011b.jpg
Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, b ...
*
List of phonograph manufacturers
This is a list of phonograph manufacturers. The phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone, record player or turntable, is a device introduced in 1877 for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound.
Phonograph manufacturer ...
References
Further reading
* Barnum, Fred (1991). ''His Master's Voice in America''.
* Southall, Brian (1996). ''The Story of the World's Leading Music Retailer: HMV 75, 1921–1996''.
External links
*
Musée des ondes Emile Berliner – Montréal
{{Authority control
British record labels
Re-established companies
EMI
RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
Technicolor SA
Symbols introduced in 1899
Jazz record labels
British advertising slogans
1890s neologisms
Quotations from music
Dogs in art