Chris Barton

Chris Barton is best known for being the co-founder of Shazam, a mobile application that recognises songs then tells the user its name and the artist. With over one billion people using the service internationally, the app's mission is to "help people recognise and engage with the world around them". As a business and technology speaker, Chris reflects upon the creation of Shazam, giving his audience an insight into his journey to business success.

Though Chris co-created the idea in 1999, Shazam was officially launched in 2002. Initially, users could dial "2580" on their phone to find out the name of a song through an SMS that was texted to them. From there, an app was created and introduced into the Apple App Store in 2008, making the process more streamlined and interactive. Since 08, the brand has continued to explode, and now caters to television programmes and different app stores. Chris' creation of Shazam followed a simple process; users open the app and start the system, then a digital fingerprint of the song is created which matches to Shazam's vast database, the user is then given the name of the track, the artist, video content and concert tickets.

When it was launched, Shazam had over 2 million songs in its database - nowadays, it has over 30 million songs. This is a reflection of Chris' explosive influence on the brand, and the impressive rise in popularity. The app has become a staple on people's mobile phones. As a testament to this technology speaker's business perseverance, Shazam survived the 2008 economic crisis and the dot.com bust. As well as working on Shazam, Chris has also worked for Google and Dropbox, specialising in mobile operating development, where he optimises the apps to mobile phone users.

With such a successful career, Chris now dedicates his time to speaking at events and inspiring the business innovators of the future. He is a role model for entrepreneurs, as he can offer advice for those wishing to found their own business start-ups.