Courtesy of Pamela Littky / Warner Bros. Television Group

Back in 1999, when the world was in pandemonium about Y2K, it was Shawn Fanning and Napster that really made the biggest online impact. Fanning’s music stealing, err, sharing program, had taken advantage of the unique tools the Internet offered for music lovers and exploded into a program used by millions. Exactly 10 years later, Josh Schwartz 8212; famous for creating television’s “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl” 8212; has once again taken the World Wide Web and utilized it with music for his new Web series, “Rockville CA.”

The Webisodes (much like television episodes, except broken down into quick five-minute installments for the ever-distracted YouTube audience), focus around a Los Angeles music venue and the people who hang out there (think “Cheers” set at the House of Blues).

Why “Rockville CA” really stands out is that each episode features a new band. White Lies, The Kooks, Phantom Planet and local favorite Anya Marina are a few of the many acts already being featured in Rockville’s non-fictional Echo Park. On top of being featured in the Webisode, the musicians get multiple videos for each song they perform on the show, ensuring enough time for a story in the actual episodes and giving away plenty of free music for anyone with extra time to watch these supplemental videos.

The Daily Aztec recently interviewed the show’s lead actors to get a perspective on why Schwartz’s show is so appealing and how its unique blend of concert and scripted entertainment is leading another part music, part Internet revolution.

Andrew West plays quirky music lover Hunter. Hunter is the guy who’s at every show every night, yet still gets hassled by the bouncer and still can’t hold a normal, unnervous conversation with members of the opposite sex. West brought up that, “You get all different kinds of rock bands on the show” and that, “the show introduced (he) to a lot of bands that (he) hadn’t heard of previously that (he) can’t stop listening to since (he) worked on the show.”

Alexandra Chando, a former Emmy nominee for her work on close to 300 episodes of “As The World Turns,” plays Deb, a record label representative who hangs at the shows to scout new talent, as well as being the target of Hunter’s awkward conversations. According to Chando, the strength of the show is that the audience is “introduced to the bands on such an intimate level.”

Ryan Hansen is best known for his role as Dick Casablancas in the locally filmed and sorely missed television series “Veronica Mars.” But in “Rockville CA,” he takes on the role of Chambers, also known as The Douche, which is explained in the third part of the show.

Providing some of the more outrageous parts of “Rockville,” Hansen’s favorite memories include having The Kooks invite them to its concert after a day of filming. In his words, they got to be “rockstar actors” who “hung out and talked with different bands every day of filming.” And if you miss Hansen in “Rockville CA,” you can see him on Starz in the new comedy “Party Down,” created by Paul Rudd and “Veronica Mars” creator Rob Thomas.

With the Internet competing with television for successful shows and loyal viewers, it looks like actors and actresses have the chance to be seen everywhere at once. And that’s the advantage the show has in using the Internet to take off and make something more unique than a lot of what’s on television.

“Rockville CA” has two new Webisodes released every Tuesday. Check them out at www.thewb.com.