Ask people what German bands they’ve heard of, and they’re likely to say Rammstein or Kraftwerk. But Germany’s pop landscape is diverse with a lot to discover. With German Pop, DW has developed a series of podcasts with concerts and portraits covering the spectrum of German pop music. You can subscribe to the podcasts using iTunes or get a quick overview here.

And if seeing is believing, check out popXport or Arts.21 – both of which offer insights into the German music scene.

 

If you haven’t yet, check out DW on Google+ and start sharing your favorite stories, articles, posts, videos and pictures. Our Google+ page features the latest news and features from science and technology, sports, arts and culture and the environment. Updated constantly by our social media team.

 

 

Asia
DW has further developed its partnership with Ariana FM in Afghanistan and is now broadcasting its Dari service every evening. DW can now be heard in primetime in 33 of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan. The independent radio station is among the most successful in the country and is dedicated to the development of a civil society.

DW has once again added a new partner in Indonesia. DW-TV ASIA+ will now be broadcast by the DTH provider Yes TV, headquartered in Jakarta. Yes TV has a line-up that includes more than 50 international TV channels and has more than 300,000 subscribers.

In Australia, the community TV sender QCTV has included one of the Future Now webdocs on its website. Users can now watch “Methane – energy of the future” and learn about untapped resources.

Latin America
To ensure the quality of its live stream, DW has further developed its monitoring system in Latin America by installing StreamMon systems in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Toluca (Mexico). The new additions bring the worldwide total to 12 monitoring stations that are responsible for monitoring DW’s live streams around the clock.

A new partnership in Brazil is bringing Global Ideas to the classroom. Ninety of the short documentaries will be shown in Portuguese in more than 5,000 schools in Brazil starting this march.

We at DW Insider would like to wish all of our partners, fans and friends the best for this holiday season. And we hope that you get off to good start in 2012!

DW has launched a new contest to accompany Big City Nights – the Scorpions documentary that will be released in 2013. Participants will have a chance to win an original Gibson Flying V, autographed by the Scorpions, one of four “Scorpions Live in 3D” DVDs or one of two signed “Comeblack” albums.

The contest will run until January 15, 2012. So if you think you have what it takes to win, go to the Big City Nights blog and enter!