HMV

History

HMV or 'His Master's Voice' has for long been a very important name in the music industry and used to be a large record label. The name 'His Master's Voice' originates from the label's logo which is a terrier dog listening to a gramophone recording of his master's voice.

The logo is a painting of the dog Nipper and it was bought, along with the UK rights to it, by the Gramophone Company in 1899. The Gramophone Company didn't use the logo on their records until 1909. Until then, the image had only been used in the USA by the 'Victor Talking Machine Company' on their records. They continued to use it and so did their successor RCA which bought Victor in 1929 along with their shares in the Gramophone Company.

EMI was created in 1931 and ultimately ended owning the Gramophone Company which was eventuallu called HMV. RCA owned shares in EMI until 1939 when it sold them but kept hold of the name 'His Master's Voice' in the USA. EMI kept distributing RCA records until 1957 when their collaboration was interrupted.

With the arrival of the CD, EMI eventually dropped the 'His Master's Voice' trademark and replaced it with 'EMI Classics', a name which could be used all around the globe.

The HMV trademark is now owned by the HMV retail company in Britain which owns over 400 shops around the globe. They have no current ties to EMI having sold all the shops to the HMV group in 1998. The first HMV shop opened in London in 1921 and they still use a modified version of the Nipper painting as their logo.

Classification of HMV records (English Pressings)

HMV records, same as Columbia and Decca, come in mono and stereo. Mono records come in the series ALP, BLP, CLP and DLP, while stereo records come in the series ASD and SAN, also known as the Angel series. Earlier records from these series have 3 digits after their corresponding prefix and later records have 4. The earlier ones, with three digits, are the most valuable and collectible ones. All mono records have four digits and tend to be generally less valuable, exceptions are records by artists such as De Vito.

Mono LPs - ALP Series

HMV released its first mono LP in 1952, much later than its rivals Decca and Columbia. Its ALP monos have a red label and present the Nipper logo in a semi-circle. Around the semi-circle we can see the words 'His Master's Voice' indicationg the name of the label.

This record belongs to the HMV ALP series and can be recognized by the semi-circle Nipper logo with the words 'His Master's Voice' sorounding it. It as a red label with white and dark red lettering.	This record belongs to the HMV ALP series and can be recognized by the semi-circle Nipper logo with the words 'His Master's Voice' sorounding it. It as a red label with gold lettering.

Stereo LPs - ASD and SAN (Angel) series

HMV records belonging to the ASD series come in 6 different labels and vary greatly in value accordingly. As said previously, generally records with 3 digits after the prefix are more valuable than ones with 4. The first label is the most valuable and runs from ASD251 to ASD575. The second label runs from ASD576 to ASD2480. The third label runs up to ASD2800, the fourth one runs up to about ASD3850, the fifth one runs up to ASD4000. The sixth label, most recent one, was introduced in the 1980s and unfortunately is of lower sound quality than its predecessors.

This record belongs to the HMV ASD first series. It can be easily recognized by its white label with gold edges and red writing.	This record belongs to the HMV second series. It can be easily recognised by its semi-circle Nipper logo and red label.
This record belongs to the HMV ASD third series. It can be easily recognized by its red label with dark red and white writing. It also has the colour Nipper logo in a box with white edges and the name 'His Master's Voice' at the bottom of the box.	This record belongs to the HMV ASD fourth series. It can be easily recognised by its red label and black and white Nipper logo.
This record belongs to the HMV ASD fifth series. It is the first series recorded digitally. This series can be recognised by the 'Digital' logo on top of the Nipper logo box.	HMV ASDsixth series. It recognisable by its semi-circle logo with the words 'His Master's Voice' written inside the semi-circle (often pressed in Germany).

Stereo LPs - Angel (SAN) series

The HMV Angel series contains records that came out around the same time as the ASD series. The difference is that Angel series records have an angel logo on their label. These records are sometimes collectible, especially the earlier ones. Angel series records have a serial that starts withe the prefix SAN which is followed by 3 digits.

This is an example of an HMVrecord belonging to the Angel series. This is part of the first Angel series label collection and it can be recognised by its gold label with a white angel logo. Items with this label are very collectible.	This HMV record belongs to the 2nd Angel series and can be recognized by its coloured Nipper logo. It also displays an EMI logo at the bottom of the label.