The band's back together—MTV and Diddy’s Making the Band, that is. But unlike past seasons, the revived music competition series is tapping social media to discover talent.

While MTV worked with multiple social media partners, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for the first phase of its cross-platform, global casting campaign, nearly 92% of the 540,000 singer, dancer, and musician submissions from around the globe came via Smule, a music app where users can sing or duet with people from across the globe.

“For the return of the Making the Band franchise, the casting call went global,” says Tyler Hissey, vp of marketing and social media at MTV, VH1 and CMT. “Our partnership with Smule offered us a chance to reach a huge population of music lovers and talented individuals worldwide who actively use the app.”

The show premiered on MTV in 2002—that's two years before Facebook’s founding—and Diddy scouted and auditioned performers in person. Social media has since become an important part of everyday life, providing performers worldwide with a launchpad to share their talents, gain a following, and jump start their music career (think big names like Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Troye Sivan, and Halsey).

So when Diddy and MTV began the search for the next breakout superstar, they recognized the necessity of a social-first campaign that emphasized raw, unscripted talent. That’s where Smule came in.

The Smule appeal

Smule is a global community of more than 52 million music lovers. The platform allows subscribers to sing and make music with friends and major recording artists, including Ed Sheeran, Demi Lovato, Shawn Mendes, Charlie Puth, and Camila Cabello. MTV partnered with the platform as part of the digital campaign for The Hills: New Beginnings,  letting users sing along with Natasha Bedingfield to her song “Unwritten."

“Our whole thing is about community,” explains Kevin Carson, svp of global artist and industry relations at Smule. “The way to think of us is really as a social network centered around music creation. What we’re seeing now is everyone wants to make music their own. They want to tailor the experience to themselves. So that's where this platform is powerful, as it lets users create their own versions of these songs, sing together, and share the stuff.”

When MTV partnered with the San Francisco-based company again for the Making the Band casting call, the response was overwhelming.

“Tyler introduced us to Smule, and it just took off,” says Deon Graham, digital director at Combs Enterprises, a portfolio of brands and businesses overseen by Diddy. “I think they had 500,000 submissions on launch week, which was shocking. But I guess it's because of how the platform is set up. It's almost perfect for auditions.”

Applicants uploaded their videos to Smule using #MTBcasting and could then create video auditions using a curated playlist of songs. They could then share those videos across their own social channels.

“There’s a sense of rawness that Smule allows for because it’s a group of music fans singing along to their favorite tracks with no filter,” explains Hissey. “The response on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube was also really strong, and videos on those platforms were a little more polished.”