As a teenager, Emanuel played in bands and bought his first electric guitar with money earned from a paper route.

During the same time period, he played bass in a punk band, Class Ties, who released an album on EMI in 1981.

In the mid-1980s, he began to manage bands including The Jam and Stiff Little Fingers, with whom he co-wrote several songs, produced and engineered.

With significant success, Taylor joined the staff of Match Music, and ultimately he and Emanuel ran the company.

Rather than writing and recording the "traditional old-school emulations," Emanuel and Taylor approached commercial artists, many of whom they already knew, to create tracks with high production values.

In 1997, when MatchMusic was sold to BMG, Emanuel and Taylor decided to found their own library, naming the company Extreme Music.

With a focus on production, they intentionally limited the size of the catalogue, "upping the industry ante by using professional recording studios and top-notch musicians."