January 27th is being called “the day the music died” by many Canadians. That’s the day that an Ontario judge approved bankruptcy for Canada’s largest music retailer HMV.
__________________________
On Friday January 27th, an Ontario Canada Superior Court of Judge approved placing HMV Canada into receivership. The application was filed by HUK 10 Ltd, a subsidiary of the U.K. restructuring company Hilco UK which bought HMV in 2011.
Court filings show that retailer owes $39 million to the restructuring firm and has not made a payments in more than two years. Major and independent music and film distributors are owed millions more.
All 103 HMV Canada stores are liquidating inventory and closing before April 30th. HMV operates as a separate company in the UK and Hong Kong.
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.[5] For advertising purposes this was changed to a wind-up gramophone, and eventually used simply as a silhouette, according to Wikipedia.