Chris Barton
Born
United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California
University of Cambridge
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, inventor, keynote speaker
Known forCo-founding Shazam[1][2][3]
Websitechrisjbarton.com

Chris Barton is an American tech entrepreneur, inventor, investor, and keynote speaker. He founded Shazam, a music identification application, and was its first CEO.[1][4][5][6]

Early life and education

Chris Barton was born and raised in the United States, in California. His father, John P. Barton, was a professor in nuclear physics, and his mother, Claudia F. Barton, was a professor in the field of computer science.[7][8] His father is British and his mother is French, which he cites as giving him both the interest in living in the UK and the passport to do so;[9] his parents also set up a physics consultancy, which he credits as inspiration for his choice of an entrepreneurial career.[1]

Barton graduated from University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Economics, and later pursued a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the same institution.[1][10][11] Barton also earned a Master in Finance degree from the University of Cambridge.[12][11]

Career

Barton's career began with several years as a strategy consultant at the L.E.K. Consulting in London and the San Francisco Consulting Group, and it also included an internship at Microsoft.[11]

Shazam

In summer 1999 while on a summer internship in his MBA program, Barton conceived of the idea for Shazam initially as a service to let consumers know what songs were playing on the radio. That fall, Barton's idea pivoted to song name identification based on recording the song's audio and pattern-matching it to known tunes,[8] an idea he conceived while in the bath.[13] After identifying their initial business model (Premium SMS), Barton co-founded Shazam in 2000, alongside Philip Inghelbrecht and Dhiraj Mukherjee as co-founders, and later, Avery Wang as the fourth co-founder.[14][15][16][6][17] Barton located the company in London, based on its proximity to Nokia, the leading cellphone manufacturer of the time, and the UK's world-leading (at the time) per-capita purchase volume of music.[8]

During his early tenure with Shazam, as CEO, Barton raised angel funding for the company, buoyed by a summer 2020 technology breakthrough from technical co-founder Avery Wang which enabled him to perform live demos at fundraising pitches.[18] He secured initial content and distribution partnerships, including with 4 key mobile operators in the UK. In 2002, he and his co-founders hired Jerry Roest as CEO, who oversaw the run-up to launch that August; Barton continued in an advisory role, and then left to join Google in early 2004.[8] He participated in Shazam's governance as Board Director until 2018, when Shazam was acquired by Apple.[11][19][17]

On September 24, 2018, Apple acquired Shazam for a reported $400 million.[20][5][21] In 2022, Apple announced that Shazam has been downloaded over 2 billion times.[22] In 2012, Shazam announced that it drove over $300 million a year in music downloads.[23][24] The company had raised $143.5 million in venture capital financing and its investors included Kleiner Perkins, DN Capital, IVP, Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music.[20]

Google and Dropbox

From 2004 until 2016, Barton held roles at Google and Dropbox, focusing on areas such as Android business development and establishing partnerships with mobile operators.[25] Barton was the first business development employee at Google to focus on mobile partnerships.[12][11][25][26][27] He joined Dropbox in late 2012, leading their partnerships with mobile operators.[9]

Barton holds 12 patents including two for Google and five for Dropbox. One of these patents is employed within the Google Search algorithm.[28]

Barton was a witness at the United States v. Google LLC antimonopoly trial held in Washington D.C. in 2023.[25][29]

Guard

In 2018, he founded Guard Inc., a startup that employs artificial intelligence technology to prevent drowning incidents in swimming pools. Since then, Barton has served as the CEO of the company.[11][21]

Personal life

Barton had undiagnosed dyslexia-related challenges and ADHD during his childhood.[19][30]

Barton appeared in a Super Bowl television advertisement in 2012 for Best Buy, alongside Ray Kurzweil and Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram.[21][31][32]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jacobs, Emma (31 January 2014). "Shazam: the app that calls the tune". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  2. ↑ Keegan, Victor (25 April 2002). "Heard it thru' the mobile". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  3. ↑ Mulligan, Mark (2015). Awakening: The Music Industry In The Digital Age. London: MIDiA Research. ISBN 9781514143988.
  4. ↑ "Meet Chris Barton, founder of music recognition app Shazam". businesschief.asia. 2023-04-21. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  5. 1 2 Singleton, Micah (2017-12-11). "Apple confirms it has acquired Shazam". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  6. 1 2 "How Shazam Makes Unique Audio Fingerprints to Identify Songs". WSJ. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  7. ↑ Gallagher, David F. (28 October 2002). "Name That Tune, From Your Cellphone". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Newnham, Danielle (2013-12-17). Mad Men of Mobile: Leading Entrepreneurs and Innovators Share Their Stories, from SIRI to SHAZAM. ISBN 978-1-4942-6656-1.
  9. 1 2 Maasdorp, Nix (10 February 2015). "Chris Barton on finding the sweet spot". Dropbox Growers. Medium. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  10. ↑ Jolly, Adam (29 May 2002). "Going for a song and growth". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Chris Barton - Founder, CEO at Shazam & Guard Inc. Biography". build. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  12. 1 2 "Founder of Shazam | Innovation Speaker | Chris Barton". Founder Of Shazam | Innovation Keynote Speaker | Chris Barton. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  13. ↑ Thomas, Daniel (6 November 2015). "How do you turn your tech start-up into a global giant?". BBC News. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  14. ↑ Sheppard, Emma (2016-12-07). "Shazam co-founder: 'We were growing a business in a collapsing market'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  15. ↑ Gillies, Trent (2015-06-14). "Shazam names that tune, drawing in money and users". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  16. ↑ Sampat, Rahul. "Snaps & claps: the story of Berkeley alums and Shazam's $400M Apple acquisition". blogs.haas.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  17. 1 2 Holl, Kristi (2014-12-30). Shazam and Its Creators. Rosen Young Adult. ISBN 978-1-4777-7925-5.
  18. ↑ Silva, JP (2020). Startups in Action: The critical Year One choices that built Etsy, HotelTonight, Fiverr and more. Apress. pp. 14–24. ISBN 9781484257876.
  19. 1 2 Masters, Julie (2023-05-31). "Chris Barton on the story of Shazam, doing the impossible and a start from zero mindset". JULIE MASTERS. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  20. 1 2 Lunden, Ingrid (2018-09-24). "Apple closes its $400M Shazam acquisition and says the music recognition app will soon become ad free". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  21. 1 2 3 "The Power of Perseverance | Shazam Co-Founder Chris Barton on Making the Impossible Possible". tonyrobbins.com. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  22. ↑ Kane, Brendan (2023). Eine Million Follower: Wie man in nur 30 Tagen seine Social-Media-Präsenz massiv erhöht (1. Auflage ed.). München: REDLINE Verlag. ISBN 9783962674854.
  23. ↑ "Shazam turns 20". Apple Newsroom (Australia). Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  24. ↑ "Shazam Is Generating Big Bucks for iTunes and Amazon".
  25. 1 2 3 "In Antitrust Trial, Former Google Employee Details History of Search Deals". The New York Times. 2023-09-13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
  26. ↑ "Former Googler testifies under DOJ grilling that his priority was default status for the search engine on mobile". Fortune. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
  27. ↑ Osorio, Roger (27 September 2022). The Journey To Reinvention. New Degree Press. ISBN 9798885045322.
  28. ↑ "Google Patents". patents.google.com. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  29. ↑ "Google Trial Spills Details on Search Engine's Deals With Apple, Samsung". WSJ. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  30. ↑ Murphy, Melissa. "Chris Barton: A Story of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Discovery". D'Amelio Network. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  31. ↑ "Super Bowl ads: Mobile innovators download in Best Buy Web video series (video)". Washington Post. 2023-06-28. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  32. ↑ "Best Buy's Super Bowl commercial highlights mobile tech innovators". VentureBeat. 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2023-09-10.


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