28 Facts About HMV

Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV, is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom.

HMV stands for His Master's Voice, the title of a painting by Francis Barraud of Nipper listening to a Phonograph cylinder, bought by the Gramophone Company in 1899.

HMV owned the Waterstones bookshop chain from 1998 until 2011, and has owned the music retailer Fopp since August 2007.

HMV Group plc, which had been listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index, was liquidated in July 2014.

HMV Canada is a former subsidiary which was sold to Hilco by the HMV Group in 2011.

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HMV Canada went into receivership in 2017 after being sued by Huk 10 Ltd.

On 28 December 2018, HMV announced that the company had fallen into administration.

On 5 February 2019, HMV was acquired by the Canadian company Sunrise Records, which had bought the leases for 70 former HMV Canada properties in an effort to continue operating them as record stores.

Antecedents of HMV began in the 1890s at the dawn of the disc gramophone.

Original HMV shop was severely damaged by a fire in 1937, but was rebuilt and reopened two years later on 8 May 1939.

Subsequently, HMV overtook Our Price in popularity and threatened its existence, having established a chain of newer and larger stores.

HMV floated on the London Stock Exchange later in the year as HMV Group plc, leaving EMI with only a token holding.

Permira made a second offer which increased the value, although HMV declined it on 13 March 2006, subsequently issuing a statement that the offer undervalued the medium and long term prospects for the company, resulting in Permira withdrawing from bidding.

In 2006, the HMV Group purchased the Ottakar's book chain and merged it into Waterstones.

On 14 January 2009 a placing announcement by HMV revealed that it intended to acquire 14 of Zavvi's stores.

On 15 January 2013, HMV Group appointed Deloitte as company administrators.

HMV Ireland followed by declaring receivership on 16 January 2013, which required the company under Irish law to close all its stores immediately.

On 5 April 2013, Hilco UK announced that it had acquired HMV, taking the company out of administration and saving 141 of its stores and around 2, 500 jobs.

In January 2015, HMV overtook Amazon to become the largest retailer of physical music in the UK.

On 28 December 2018, HMV confirmed it had again been placed into administration.

Company founder Doug Putman stated that he planned to increase the chain's emphasis on vinyl phonograph sales as part of the turnaround plan: Sunrise's leverage of the vinyl revival had helped bolster the Canadian locations' performance after the shops' transitions from HMV, having sold at least 500, 000 vinyl LPs in 2017 alone.

From 22 March to 15 June, and then from 5 November to 2 December 2020 and from 4 January 2021 to 12 April 2021, all HMV stores were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Into the 2020s, HMV began opening new and relocated stores, including in locations which previously had HMV branches that had earlier shut, such as Solihull.

HMV established a joint venture with Curzon Cinemas in October 2009 as part of chief executive Simon Fox's plan to bring cinemas to HMV and Waterstone's stores across England.

In June 2015, HMV relaunched an online store to accompany its existing music download service.

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HMV relaunched its online store in June 2015, providing CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and LP records for online order and home delivery with exclusive stock available.

On 1 September 2008, HMV launched "Get Closer", a social networking site allowing users to import their own music library, rivalling other providers including online music stores Napster and the iTunes Store.

HMV operated a loyalty scheme branded as "purehmv", first launched in August 2003, but subsequently closed and relaunched in 2008.