Chris Barton: I was essentially creating something that solved my own problem. But the real aha moment with Shazam was when I came up with the idea of implementing a technology that had never been done before – the sound recognition that could work in a “noisy environment” and over a mobile phone. Startup Exits with Chris Barton, founder of Shazam. The $400 million sale to Apple: how Chris started, ran and sold Shazam. Chris Barton used the term delightful a few times and there was something great about hearing him say that about his product. He talks about Shazam being a delight when people use it and it’s so true. Using Shazam for the first time truly equated to having magic in my hands. Chris Barton was the original CEO and Founder of Shazam Entertainment, the London-based music recognition company. He currently works at Dropbox.
Virtual Keynote: Breaking the Sound Barrier - Challenges We Faced and Lessons We Learned in Building Shazam
Chris Barton Shazam Bio
Before smartphones, apps, and digital voice assistants, Chris Barton came up with the idea for people to identify songs by using their phone in 1999. But turning this idea into a commercial product was exceptionally difficult since PhDs in ...
Before smartphones, apps, and digital voice assistants, Chris Barton came up with the idea for people to identify songs by using their phone in 1999. But turning this idea into a commercial product was exceptionally difficult since PhDs in signal processing considered this problem “impossible” to solve due to the background noise. In addition, the startup faced numerous challenges in building the “fingerprint database” of millions of songs as well as launching to users in a world before mobile apps existed. In this exciting talk, Barton shows audiences what it takes to bring an original idea to market when everyone says you can’t do it.
Chris Barton – Leading expert in mobile applications, successful entrepreneur and startup advisor
Chris Barton Shazam
Chris Barton Speech Sample Video:
Chris Barton Speech Topics:
- Breaking the Sound Barrier – Challenges We Faced and Lessons We Learned in Building Shazam
- Shazam’s Early Years: Surviving Difficult Times & The Keys to Startup Success
- Lessons for Entrepreneurs Collected from My Shazam Experience
- Ten Things I Am Grateful for in My Shazam Experience
- Picking the Right Obsession
- The story of Creating Shazam and “Touchy Feely” Lessons for Entrepreneurs
About Chris Barton:
Chris Barton is an entrepreneur speaker, co-founder and Board Director of Shazam, and expert in mobile applications. At Shazam, he helped guide the music discovery company from idea to profit as co-founder and Board Director. He has also worked eight years at Google focused on mobile and at Dropbox as head of mobile operators development. Now he follows his dream of advising passionate entrepreneurs who want to make the world a better place, by speaking on entrepreneurship and advising a handful of startups. In addition, he is embarking on his next startup venture.
Barton co-founded Shazam in 1999 with the original idea to identify songs with a mobile phone. Before smartphones, people would call a number, put their phone up to the radio and receive a text identifying the song.
When the company launched in 2002, Shazam had 2 million songs in its database and took 15 seconds to process a user’s request. Today Shazam’s app has been downloaded by over 1 billion people globally. Now the app takes only a few seconds to identify songs from its database of over 30 million songs.
Shazam’s journey was one of faith and endurance for Barton and his co-founders. The company survived the dot.com bust but the company struggled for many years. Barton left in 2004 to join Google and later Dropbox but continued to serve on the Board throughout. Only in 2008 did Shazam begin its “hockey stick” growth curve once iPhone and Android app stores were introduced to the world.
Chris Barton Shazam
Today, Shazam is among the most popular apps on both iPhone and Android with over 120 million monthly active users. Shazam’s highly advanced technology and superior customer ratings helped convince Apple to purchase the company for a reported $400 million in December 2017.
Barton holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, a Master’s degree in Finance from Cambridge University, and a BA from UC Berkeley.
To request Chris Barton to speak at your next event, contact:
Robinson Speakers | The Gold Standard For Speakers
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