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Chris Barton (businessman)

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

Chris Barton is an American tech entrepreneur, inventor, investor, and keynote speaker. He founded Shazam, a music identification and discovery company, and was its first CEO.[1][3][4]

Early life and education

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Chris Barton was born and raised in the United States, and lives 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.[5][6] 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;[7] his parents also set up a nuclear 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][8][9] Barton also earned a Master in Finance degree from the University of Cambridge.[9]

Career

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Barton's career began as a strategy consultant at L.E.K. Consulting in London and the San Francisco Consulting Group, and it also included an internship at Microsoft in London.[9]

Shazam

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In summer 1999 while on an internship in his MBA program, Barton conceived of the idea for Shazam as a service to enable consumers to find out what songs were playing where music could be heard, based on recording the song's audio and pattern-matching it to a database of songs.[4][6][10] After conceiving the idea for Shazam, Barton co-founded the company in 2000, along with co-founders Philip Inghelbrecht and Dhiraj Mukherjee, and later, Avery Wang as the fourth co-founder.[11][12][13][14] Barton located the company in London, based on the UK being the world-leading country (at the time) as measured by per-capita music purchases.[6]

During his early tenure with Shazam, as CEO, Barton raised angel funding for the company, buoyed by a summer 2000 technology breakthrough from technical co-founder Avery Wang which enabled him to demonstrate the music recognition technology at fundraising pitches.[15] As CEO, Barton raised $7.5 million in venture capital[16] and secured initial distribution partnerships with the four leading mobile operators in the UK, enabling Shazam to commercially launch in 2002. Barton left to join Google in early 2004 when Google was still a private company.[6] He continued to participate in Shazam's governance as Board Director until 2018, when Shazam was acquired by Apple.[9][17]

On September 24, 2018, Apple acquired Shazam for a reported $400 million.[18][19] In 2022, Apple announced that Shazam has been downloaded over 2 billion times.[20] In 2012, Shazam announced that it drove over $300 million a year in music downloads.[21][22] Shazam had raised $143.5 million in venture capital financing and its investors included Kleiner Perkins,[23] IDG Ventures,[16] DN Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music.[24]

Google and Dropbox

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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.[9][25][26][27] He joined Dropbox in late 2011, leading their partnerships with mobile operators.[7]

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 anti-monopoly trial held in Washington D.C. in 2023.[25][29]

Guard

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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.[9][30]

Personal life

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Barton had undiagnosed dyslexia-related challenges during his childhood.[17][31]

Barton appeared in a Super Bowl television advertisement in 2012 for Best Buy, alongside Ray Kurzweil and Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram.[32][33]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Jacobs, Emma (31 January 2014). "Shazam: the app that calls the tune". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  2. ^ Mulligan, Mark (2015). Awakening: The Music Industry In The Digital Age. London: MIDiA Research. ISBN 9781514143988.
  3. ^ "Meet Chris Barton, founder of music recognition app Shazam". businesschief.asia. 2023-04-21. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  4. ^ a b "How Shazam Makes Unique Audio Fingerprints to Identify Songs". WSJ. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  5. ^ Gallagher, David F. (28 October 2002). "Name That Tune, From Your Cellphone". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d Newnham, Danielle (2013-12-17). Mad Men of Mobile: Leading Entrepreneurs and Innovators Share Their Stories, from SIRI to SHAZAM. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1-4942-6656-1.
  7. ^ a b Maasdorp, Nix (10 February 2015). "Chris Barton on finding the sweet spot". Dropbox Growers. Medium. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  8. ^ Jolly, Adam (29 May 2002). "Going for a song and growth". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e f "Chris Barton - Founder, CEO at Shazam & Guard Inc. Biography". build. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  10. ^ Thomas, Daniel (6 November 2015). "How do you turn your tech start-up into a global giant?". BBC News. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Gillies, Trent (2015-06-14). "Shazam names that tune, drawing in money and users". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  13. ^ Sampat, Rahul. "Snaps & claps: the story of Berkeley alums and Shazam's $400M Apple acquisition". blogs.haas.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  14. ^ Holl, Kristi (2014-12-30). Shazam and Its Creators. Rosen Young Adult. ISBN 978-1-4777-7925-5.
  15. ^ Silva, JP (2020). Startups in Action: The critical Year One choices that built Etsy, HotelTonight, Fiverr and more. Apress. pp. 14–24. ISBN 9781484257876.
  16. ^ a b Keegan, Victor (25 April 2002). "Heard it thru' the mobile". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  17. ^ a b 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.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ Singleton, Micah (2017-12-11). "Apple confirms it has acquired Shazam". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ "Shazam turns 20". Apple Newsroom (Australia). Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  22. ^ "Shazam Is Generating Big Bucks for iTunes and Amazon".
  23. ^ Lawsky, David (14 October 2009). "Kleiner Perkins to invest in iPhone app Shazam". Reuters. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  24. ^ Adegoke, Yinka (15 May 2014). "Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music All Take Cash Stakes in Shazam, Betting on IPO". Billboard. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  25. ^ a b c "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. ^ "The Power of Perseverance | Shazam Co-Founder Chris Barton on Making the Impossible Possible". tonyrobbins.com. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  31. ^ Murphy, Melissa. "Chris Barton: A Story of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Discovery". D'Amelio Network. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  32. ^ "Super Bowl ads: Mobile innovators download in Best Buy Web video series (video)". Washington Post. 2023-06-28. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  33. ^ "Best Buy's Super Bowl commercial highlights mobile tech innovators". VentureBeat. 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
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