Meet ‘Zach and Tony,’ the Lifelong Friends Behind Elliot Grainge’s Atlantic Reinvention

Atlantic Music Group executives Zach Friedman, 34, and Tony Talamo, 35, person ever been seen arsenic a bundle deal. Often referred to successful tandem arsenic simply “Zach and Tony,” the trusted right-hand men of AMG CEO and longtime workfellow Elliot Grainge accidental their relationship predates their statement roles by decades.

“We’ve known each different since birth,” Talamo says. “Same neighborhood, aforesaid everything. Growing up, we bonded implicit movies, euphony and sports.” Like galore entrepreneurs earlier them, the Voorhees, N.J.-raised duo started a selling and absorption institution — yet called Homemade Projects — successful 2011 during their archetypal twelvemonth of college. “It was the infinitesimal erstwhile euphony truly started to go democratized,” Friedman says. “Justin Bieber utilized YouTube to physique a instrumentality base. We were large fans of Mac Miller, and we saw him succeeding with conscionable his friends and a camera.”

Talamo and Friedman identified a promising young enactment of their own, a tween rapper named Chris Miles. They DM’d him, offering to assistance marque a euphony video. It didn’t substance that Talamo and Friedman were lone 19 oregon that they didn’t person immoderate acquisition making videos. They wanted to assistance Miles physique a instrumentality basal online. “We took a autobus into the metropolis and started making his videos,” Friedman says. Soon after, they got Miles onto WorldStarHipHop, a fashionable rap blog astatine the time, which earned the young creator millions of views a day, Friedman recalls.

Homemade Projects grew into 1 of the aboriginal starring integer selling companies, contracting for large labels connected retainer and blowing up artists connected now-defunct societal apps similar Musical.ly (which yet merged into TikTok) and Vine.

“Now everyone does this. It feels similar each time there’s a caller 1 of these companies,” Friedman says. “But astatine the clip nary 1 truly understood what we were doing oregon the afloat powerfulness of these influencers.”

Along the way, Talamo and Friedman met Grainge, a likewise young entrepreneur who was gathering his ain autarkic label, 10K Projects. “Elliot truly got what we were doing from the beginning,” Talamo says. “We became large friends.” Business followed. The duo started handling integer selling for 10K, past formed a associated task with Grainge and yet became the label’s co-presidents.

When Grainge sold a bulk involvement successful 10K to Warner Music Group and was appointed CEO of AMG a twelvemonth aboriginal successful October 2024 — which included oversight of 10K, 300 Entertainment and Elektra — helium installed Friedman and Talamo arsenic COO and GM, respectively, and adopted the digital-first strategy that Homemade Projects had pioneered.

“It’s conscionable similar erstwhile we were 16 successful the basement,” Friedman says. “And erstwhile it doesn’t consciousness that mode anymore, I’m out.”

Early successful your careers, you signed 1 of your artists to Atlantic Records. What was the statement similar erstwhile you archetypal worked with them?

Zach Friedman: Tony and I were successful a meeting. It was expected to beryllium a readying meeting, and we were like, “We truly request to get connected Spotify playlists.” I’m not going to sanction names, but idiosyncratic astatine Atlantic said, “Name 1 rapper that’s breached disconnected Spotify.”

Tony Talamo: We looked astatine each other, like, “Oh, we’re screwed.” That’s erstwhile we realized we were going to person to fig this retired connected our own. That’s erstwhile we stumbled crossed MagCon [the Meet and Greet Convention wherever fans mingled with Instagram and Vine stars; it ran from 2013 to 2017].

Friedman: That’s wherever we truly saw the powerfulness of influencers. Five 1000 radical would amusement up to these shows to conscionable people. It was conscionable a meet-and-greet — virtually thing else. All these girls would amusement up, and we would spot that erstwhile the influencers posted songs, they would emergence up the iTunes chart. We made a deck, went to each large statement and pitched paying these [young influencers] we knew to make deed songs. We were ever hustling, and everyone was like, “We’ll springiness you $1,000, $1,500.” It would ever work.

Digital selling changes astatine a precocious velocity. What is the cardinal to staying connected apical of it?

Friedman: We’re chronically online. We’re fans first. This was our hobby earlier it was our job. That’s the competitory advantage. Also, we pioneered the abstraction earlier anyone other was successful it oregon taking it seriously.

Talamo: To Zach’s point, erstwhile you bash thing for s...