In 1898 The Gramophone Company moved into the building with the plaque and started to record popular songs often performed by music hall stars in the West End. The studio, which used primitive technology including a long trumpet-shaped horn which artists sang into, accompanied by a piano, only lasted four years.
1900-7 the company was known as the Gramophone and Typewriter Company Limited.
The painting His Master's Voice was acquired from the artist in 1899 by the Gramophone Company and adopted as a trademark by its US affiliate, the Victor Talking Machine Company. The Gramophone Company did not use the dog's image on its record labels until 1909. The company's label was not at first formally called HMV or His Master's Voice, but rapidly became identified by that phrase due to its prominence on the record labels.
The Gramophone Company opened the first HMV shop in 1921.
In 1931 the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form EMI and opened Abbey Road studios.
