HMV Opening Hours
HMV Retail Ltd. is an entertainment retailing company (registered in England) operating in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company on Oxford Street in 1921, and the HMV name was also used for television and radio sets manufactured from the 1930s onwards. The retail side of the business began to expand in the 1960s, and in 1998 was divested from EMI, the successor to the Gramophone Company, to form what would become HMV Group. HMV stands for His Master's Voice, the title of a painting by Francis Barraud of the dog Nipper listening to a cylinder phonograph, which was bought by the Gramophone Company in 1899. For advertising purposes this was changed to a wind-up gramophone, and eventually used simply as a silhouette. HMV stores stock a range of products including audio, books, Blu-ray discs, CDs, DVDs, video games, as well as an increasing range of movie, television and music merchandise.