His Master’s Voice

Abbreviated HMV is a famous trademark in the music business and was the unofficial name of a large British record label for many years.

The name came from a painting of a dog (Nipper) listening to a large wind-up gramophone painted by the English artist Francis Barraud A.R.A and called ‘His Master’s Voice’. The name was adopted by the Gramophone Company in 1899 and used as the label logo on its records. The company was not formally called His Master’s Voice or HMV, but colloquially came to be known as that due to the image on its labels.

In 1921 the Gramophone Company opened its first HMV shop in London. In 1929 RCA absorbed the Gramophone Company and in 1931 created EMI which continued to own the HMV trademark in the UK until the 1980s and the HMV shops until 1998.

The dog and gramophone image is now licensed by RCA Records and it’s parent company, Sony Music Entertainment from Technicolour SA.