[2] Universal Music New Zealand's history goes back to 10 May 1926 when His Master's Voice (NZ) Limited was incorporated as a subsidiary of the UK's The Gramophone Co. Ltd. with E J Hyams as its Managing Director and largest shareholder.
[3][4] In 1931, on Hyams' retirement, The Gramophone Co. Ltd. purchased the balance of the shares and appointed Alfred Wyness as the new Managing Director.
[10] This succession of acquisitions brought the catalogues of Prestige Records, TANZA, and Allied International into the company [10] In 1966, Pye UK was purchased by Philips[10] but Pye/Allied retained autonomy in New Zealand until 1976 when it was folded into PolyGram.
Since 2000, Universal Music New Zealand successfully launched the careers of, amongst others, Lorde, Sol3 Mio, Gin Wigmore, Hayley Westenra, Elemeno P and Zed.
That, coupled with the fact that Universal NZ owned the rights to the vast bulk of these recordings up to the 1980s, also gave this historic importance.
A major part of the process was the establishment of a clear chain of ownership especially to the smaller independent labels acquired by Universal NZ's predecessor.
In 2020 Caddick compiled a list of some 19 collections of between 30 and 40 tracks, gathered thematically and began the slow process of clearing and collating these.