The episode was originally made to be the finale of the show.
Sabrina Alberghetti at one point said that she was able to use her abilities as a storyboard artist to put in one of her favorite background ponies in this episode. A few months before that, she stated her favorite background character was DJ-Pon3, also known as Vinyl Scratch. Vinyl Scratch appears in this episode during the "Cutie Mark Song", with other ponies, watching Fluttershy try to make them laugh.
This episode has broken the record for most songs with 7 songs, the runner-up being "A Friend in Deed" with 4.
This is the first musical episode of the show, and the only one where Twilight has a song or verse to herself.