Pentatonix is best known for winning the third season of "The Sing-Off" in 2011. The a capella group was first formed by high school friends Kirstie Maldonado, Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoying. They started gaining attention on YouTube with their version of Beyonce Knowles and Lady GaGa's "Telephone". The trio named themselves Pentatonix after being joined by two new members Avi Kaplan and Kevin Olusola. The five-piece then auditioned for the NBC singing competition and signed a recording contract with Sony Music after being crowned the winner.

The group's debut EP "PTX, Volume 1" was released in 2012. It's followed by "PTXmas" that arrived in the same year. Their third release, "PTX, Vol. II", debuted at number 1 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart and number 10 on Billboard 200 in 2013. In May 2014, Pentatonix signed with RCA Records, a "flagship" label of Sony Music Entertainment. The year also saw them releasing "PTX, Vol. III" and their two first full-length studio albums, including "That's Christmas to Me" that's so far peaked at No. 2 on Billboard 200. It also becomes the second album released in 2014 to have gone platinum.

By December 31, 2014, Billboard reported the album had reached a total of 1.14 million copies sold. It becomes the 4th best selling album of 2014 by any artist of any genre, following Taylor Swift's "1989", the "Frozen (2013)" soundtrack and Sam Smith's "In the Lonely Hour", and was the Top Selling Holiday Album for 2014.

Also in December 2014, Hoying revealed that Pentatonix was readying a full album consisting of original music. "We're at the point in our careers now [where] we must go to original music, and we want to go to original music; we have so much to say, and I think it's gonna be quite a journey," he said via a video on his YouTube channel.

The album, titled after the group's name, was officially announced in August 2015. It's scheduled for release on October 16, 2015 and is led by "Can't Sleep Love" which features rising R&B singer Tink.

"Pentatonix" debuted at No. 1 on Billboard 200 upon its arrival. A little over a year later, the group scored their second char-topper on the list with their second Christmas LP, "A Pentatonix Christmas". The project, released on October 21, 2016 and featured two new original songs including "Good to Be Bad" and "The Christmas Sing-Along", entered the chart at No. 1 before climbing to the summit following the Christmas weekend.