Launched by Gramophone magazine in late 2011, the Gramophone Hall of Fame is an annual listing of the people (artists, producers, engineers, A&R directors and label founders) who have contributed to the classical music record industry. Fifty individuals and ensembles entered the Hall of Fame in its first year. A special edition of the magazine (May 2012 issue) celebrated this new initiative, and the list was first published online on 6 April 2012.

Entrants are chosen by a public vote on Gramophone's website, with voters able to choose from a shortlist of over 200 industry figures and musicians chosen by the magazine's editors. The list is intended to be updated on a yearly basis, again, by public vote.

Claudio Abbado
John Barbirolli
Daniel Barenboim
Thomas Beecham
Leonard Bernstein
Pierre Boulez
Wilhelm Furtwängler
John Eliot Gardiner
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Herbert von Karajan
Carlos Kleiber
Otto Klemperer
Simon Rattle
Georg Solti
Arturo Toscanini

Angela Gheorghiu
Janet Baker
Cecilia Bartoli
Jussi Björling
Maria Callas
Enrico Caruso
Joyce DiDonato
Plácido Domingo
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Birgit Nilsson
Luciano Pavarotti
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Joan Sutherland

Martha Argerich
Claudio Arrau
Daniel Barenboim
Alfred Brendel
Glenn Gould
Vladimir Horowitz
Murray Perahia
Maurizio Pollini
Sviatoslav Richter
Arthur Rubinstein
Lang Lang

Pablo Casals
Jacqueline du Pré
Jascha Heifetz
Yehudi Menuhin
David Oistrakh
Itzhak Perlman
Mstislav Rostropovich

Beaux Arts Trio
Takács Quartet

John Culshaw
Walter Legge
Ted Perry