AwesomenessTV's Musical Drama SIDE EFFECTS Launches on YouTube

Bringing television narrative, music and production values to YouTube, Side Effects, a musical drama co-produced by AwesomenessTV and Universal Cable Productions (UCP) and inspired by the phenomenon of millions of people covering songs on YouTube, will launch on the AwesomenessTV channel today as part of YouTube's Music Week. The soundtrack, which is Being distributed by Universal Music Group, will also be available digitally. UCP will distribute the drama through various windows and platforms, including international territories, digital download and VOD.

An ensemble cast featuring top Youtube stars and up-and-coming actors, Side Effects stars Chester See (ChesterSee), Meg DeLacy, Lulu Antariksa, Cade Canon Ball, Finn Roberts, Keli Price, Lia Marie Johnson (LiaMarieJohnson), Taryn Southern (Taryn Southern), Meghan Rosette (MeghanRosette), Vincent Cyr, plus Jason Manuel Olazabal and Bruce Thomas. It also features Top 40 hits including Ke$ha's "C'Mon," David Guetta's "Titanium," and P!nk's "Try," and is told from the perspective of 16-year-old Whitney Connolly (DeLacy), who is prescribed a medication that comes with an interesting side effect - musical hallucinations -- as she struggles with the death of her mother and the disappearance of her father.

"We are convinced that Youtube will become a new launching pad for long-form television style content, which is why we decided to debut a 42-minute version of Side Effects on AwesomenessTV" said AwesomenessTV CEO and founder Brian Robbins. "Side Effects combines Youtube stars and trends with television narrative and production values, which we believe will be the wave of the future, particularly for our teen/tween audience."

Continued Robbins, "Because music is such an integral part of Side Effects, we are thrilled to be working with Universal Music Group to offer a companion soundtrack album. Covers are a huge trend on Youtube and soundtracks have a long history of driving tune-in on television."

To view Side Effects, click here.

To purchase the Side Effects soundtrack, click here.

Side Effects executive producers are Brian Robbins, Joe Davola, Shauna Phelan, series star Chester See, and Allison Schroeder (Mean Girls 2 and 90210), who also wrote Side Effects. The series is directed by Grammy nominee Matt Stawski (Cee Lo Green's "Forget You").

Side Effects marks UCP's latest program to launch on Youtube since the 10-part web series Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome premiered on Machinima last year, garnering more than 8 million views.