When hit British teen drama ‘Skins’ was being adapted for a U.S version, MTV decided to add a bit of originality to the show’s soundtrack with Crowdsourcing…

The team in charge of adapting racy U.K teen drama Skins into a similarly sex filled U.S debauch, decided to keep the same musical formula as its counterpart. The show is known for featuring new, up and coming music, almost as much as it’s known for featuring the drunken, raucous behaviour of its characters. So to keep to the formula of musical awareness and originality, MTV launched a contest in partnership with ‘Our Stage‘, a site where unsigned artists promote their music and compete for monthly prizes. The main prize for contestants was to have one of their songs feature as the show’s main theme, with other stand out applicants featuring on the shows score.

“We have so many music heads at MTV. We wanted to collect it in an organic way without any protocol,” said Joe Cuello, MTV’s vice president of creative music integration. “Skins as a brand already has this incredible music sensibility established. It’s about independent music and sort of left of center. In many ways it reflects the MTVU brand, or ‘120 Minutes‘.” He continued: “We sort of recognized the disconnect between the broader face of music and the changing face of MTV. There is still a great music story to be told, but it’s simply grown from just the music video. The question we were faced with was how do we take the MTV brand, and all of its shows, and connect it to the music? It’s about really cool independent music that can range from bands on independent labels, or in this case artists that are unsigned.”

Cuello said the network had planned on utilising the idea of Crowdsourcing music for some time but had been reluctant to utilize any one specific portal. The partnership with Our Stage gave MTV the chance to target to right type of crowd for the project, the edgy and trendy young people that identify with the show, without diluting the campaign by broadcasting it to the mainstream. The campaign pretty much went under the radar of the commercial music world, but still managed to attract more than 6,000 submissions, before Daniel Chavez-Wright was announced as the winner. The 21 year old, who performs under the guise of  ’3D Friends’, will have his track ‘Lina Magic’ as the theme to the show premiering Jan. 17.

Cuello is also hoping that MTV will replicate the Crowdsourcing model for additional up and coming series. “The slate of new shows is weighted towards some great scripted programming, which affords us the chance to connect some pretty great music,” he said.

The Crowdsourced iniative from MTV is a forward thinking one and shows how Crowdsourcing is an invaluable tool in bringing a new and creative talent pool to a project that might have otherwise not been discovered.

What other ways do you think Crowdsourcing could help to promote new talent? Let us know your thoughts!