His Master's Voice

His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British

record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd.[1] The
phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting
by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a dog named
Nipper listening to a wind-up disc gramophone and tilting his
head.[2][3] In the original, unmodified 1898 painting, the dog
was listening to a cylinder phonograph. The painting was also
famously used as the trademark and logo of the Victor Talking
Machine Company, later known as RCA Victor. The painting
was originally offered to James Hough, manager of Edison-Bell His Master's Voice (1898) by
in London, but he declined, saying "dogs don't listen to Francis Barraud
phonographs". Barraud subsequently visited The Gramophone
Co. of Maiden Lane in London where the manager William
Barry Owen offered to purchase the painting if it were revised to depict their latest Improved
Gramophone model. Barraud obliged, and Owen bought the painting from Barraud for £100.

In the 1970s, an award was created with a copy of the statue of the dog and gramophone, His
Master's Voice, cloaked in bronze, and was presented by (EMI Records) 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 titled His Master's Voice. It was acquired from the artist in
1899 by the newly formed Gramophone Company and adopted as a
trademark by the Gramophone Company's United States affiliate, the
Victor Talking Machine Company.[4] His Master's Voice (Music
Award EMI-Bovema)
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 A coloured vinyl single released by
the company's catalogue from December 1899. As the HMV
trademark gained in popularity, several additional copies were
subsequently commissioned from the artist for various
corporate purposes.[5]
In 1967, EMI converted the HMV label into an exclusive
classical music label and dropped its POP series of popular
music. HMV's POP series artists' roster was moved to Columbia
Graphophone and Parlophone and licensed American POP
record deals to Stateside Records.[6]

The globalised market for the compact disc resulted in EMI

retiring the HMV label in favour of "EMI Classics", a name that
could be used worldwide; however, between 1988 and 1992
Morrissey'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 Victor Talking Machine Company
2003. [7] The old HMV classical music catalogue is now advertisement from 1921 with "His
controlled by the Warner Classics unit of Warner Music Master's Voice" trademark
Group.[8] Most reissues of HMV pop material that EMI
previously controlled are now reissued on Warner's Parlophone
label.[9] In the UK, Warner Classics's online presence was launched as 'Dog and Trumpet' on
Spotify, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in January 2017.[10]

Nipper worldwide
On 1 April 2007, HMV announced that Gromit, the animated
dog of Wallace and Gromit, would stand in for Nipper for a
three-month period, promoting children's DVDs in its UK
stores.[11]

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.[12] Advertisement for "His Master's
Voice" gramophones in the Dutch
As of August 2006, there were over 400 HMV stores East Indies, 1930s
worldwide.[13]

On 15 January 2013, HMV Group plc entered receivership;

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.[14]

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.[15]

On 5 February 2019, the Canadian retailer Sunrise Records Logo (in blue circle) at HMV's former
announced its acquisition of HMV Retail for an undisclosed flagship store, Oxford Street,
amount (later reported to be £883,000).[16] Sunrise planned to London
maintain the HMV chain and five Fopp stores, but immediately
closed 27 locations.[17] By late-February, HMV had reopened a
number of stores (including 1 Fopp branch).[18][19]
On 24th November 2023, the flagship store on Oxford Street in London reopened. [20]

See also
List of HMV POP artists
List of record labels
List of phonograph manufacturers

References
1. "His Master's Voice (Multinational label)" (https://www.discogs.com/label/37150-His-Masters-Vo
ice). discogs.com. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
2. Sommese, Andrea; Miklósi, Ádám; Pogány, Ákos; Temesi, Andrea; Dror, Shany; Fugazza,
Claudia (2022). "An exploratory analysis of head-tilting in dogs" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p
mc/articles/PMC9107419). Animal Cognition. 25 (3): 701–705. doi:10.1007/s10071-021-01571-
8 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10071-021-01571-8). PMC 9107419 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.g
ov/pmc/articles/PMC9107419). PMID 34697669 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34697669).
3. Wetzel, Corryn, Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads? New Study Offers Clues (https://www.smithson
ianmag.com/smart-news/why-do-dogs-tilt-their-heads-new-study-offers-clues-180978980/),
Smithsonian, 3 November 2021
4. Rye, Howard (2002). Kernfeld, Barry (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Vol. 2 (2nd ed.).
New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc. p. 249. ISBN 1-56159-284-6.
5. "The Nipper Saga" (http://www.designboom.com/history/nipper.html). Archived (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20150924073551/http://www.designboom.com/history/nipper.html) from the
original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2006.
6. Billboard (https://books.google.com/books?id=SygEAAAAMBAJ&q=1967+%2B+columbia+%2
B+hmv+%2B+classical&pg=RA1-PA51). 1967. Retrieved 28 February 2013 – via Google
Books.
7. "Trade Mark Details as at 28 February 2013: HMV Group plc" (http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/t-fin
d/t-find-number?detailsrequested=H&trademark=1170322). Patent.gov.uk. Retrieved
28 February 2013.
8. "Claude Debussy – Vladimir Horowitz: Complete HMV Recordings 1930–1951" (http://www.war
nerclassics.com/shop/551396,0825646251353/claude-debussy-vladimir-horowitz-complete-hm
v-recordings-1930-1951). Warner Classics. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2018051110
1845/http://www.warnerclassics.com/shop/551396,0825646251353/claude-debussy-vladimir-h
orowitz-complete-hmv-recordings-1930-1951) from the original on 11 May 2018.
9. "At Abbey Road" (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Abbey-Road-Swinging-Blue-Jeans/dp/B001KQVK
ZW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1437673083&sr=8-2&keywords=The%20Swinging%20Blue%20
Jeans) – via Amazon.
10. "Gramophone" (https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/56067/spread/15).
reader.exacteditions.com. May 2017. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170730204607/
https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/56067/spread/15) from the original on 30 July 2017.
11. "Gromit steps into HMV logo role" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6516235.stm).
BBC News. 1 April 2007. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20071009181043/http://news.b
bc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6516235.stm) from the original on 9 October 2007. Retrieved
4 May 2010.
12. "Canadian Trade-mark Data: 1396181 – Canadian Trade-marks Database" (http://www.ic.gc.c
a/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/vwTrdmrk.do;jsessionid=0000LLtCJxwrmM3pl-wC2RfjpfH:1247nf
ca5?lang=eng&fileNumber=1396181&extension=0&startingDocumentIndexOnPage=1).
Ic.gc.ca. Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2013120
5123639/http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/vwTrdmrk.do;jsessionid=0000LLtCJxw
rmM3pl-wC2RfjpfH:1247nfca5?lang=eng&fileNumber=1396181&extension=0&startingDocume
ntIndexOnPage=1) from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
13. "HMV Adds Gaming" (https://archive.today/20060923053731/http://www.marketnews.ca/news_
detail.asp?nid=2084). marketnews.ca. 28 August 2006. Archived from the original (http://www.
marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=2084) on 23 September 2006. Retrieved 13 September
2006.
14. "More Uncertainty for HMV" (http://thedailyshift.com/2013/01/18/more-uncertainty-for-hmv-as-it
-enters-receivership-and-stores-close-nationwide/). thedailyshift.com. 18 January 2013.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130328105024/http://thedailyshift.com/2013/01/18/mo
re-uncertainty-for-hmv-as-it-enters-receivership-and-stores-close-nationwide/) from the original
on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
15. "Music retailer HMV calls in administrators" (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46699290).
BBC News. 28 December 2018.
16. "Sunrise Records paid £883000 for HMV" (https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://w
ww.ft.com/content/e3d567c6-38ef-11e9-b856-5404d3811663). Financial Times. 25 February
2019. Archived from the original (https://www.ft.com/content/e3d567c6-38ef-11e9-b856-5404d3
811663) on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2019.(subscription required)
17. Monaghan, Angela; Butler, Sarah (5 February 2019). "HMV reveals which 27 stores have
closed after sale to Canadian music boss" (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/0
5/hmv-bought-doug-putman-stores-jobs). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 (https://www.worldca
t.org/issn/0261-3077). Retrieved 5 February 2019.
18. Hope, Fiona. "HMV brings back nine shuttered stores" (https://www.psneurope.com/business/h
mv-brings-back-stores). PSNEurope. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
19. "hmv stores: Details of Re-Openings..." (https://www.hmv.com/music/hmv-stores-re-opening)
HMV.
20. "BBC News - HMV Oxford Street flagship store reopens four years after closing" (https://www.b
bc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67509574).

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
Nipper (https://curlie.org/Recreation/Pets/Dogs/Famous_Dogs/Nipper) at Curlie
Musée des ondes Emile Berliner – Montréal (http://www.berliner.montreal.museum) Archived (h
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150216220423/http://www.berliner.montreal.museum/) 16
February 2015 at the Wayback Machine

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=His_Master%27s_Voice&oldid=1191610819"