I look to foreign markets for yet one more thing

Okay, first off, lemme just admit. I've started to use tumblr posts from a day ago as things to write about. I felt it was more okay when they happened simultaneously. Oh well. Successfully posting in both is hard!

Anyway, today I am featuring my favorite web station of the year thus far, eeking out AnimeNFO when I was in a more extreme (but yet, not too extreme) j-pop phase...

Rautemusik.FM. (I've only listened to the "main" playlist.)

It's nice because it mixes popular American music of many genres and decades, with popular songs from Germany (it's a German station) as well as Spanish and other European hits. Which is nice, because I've taken enough of those languages to pretend that I can understand the chorus.

I mean, some of the song selections are kind of random, but usually in a "what a delightful surprise!" kind of way. Yesterday I heard them play The Ding Dong Song. :-) And then they played some Gwen Stefani.

The station is by no means perfect, but let me just give a short run-down of why I think it's the best I've heard thus far:
- It's DJ-ed. I don't know if it's actually broadcast anywhere that's not the net, but having a DJ prevents the playlist looping that even the more popular Sky.fm and .977 stations suffer TERRIBLY from since no one's really manning it.
- but it's not bogged down by talk.
- the commercials are in German. This helps somehow because you're not as aware they're repeating. There are streams of actual FM stations in the area I could listen to (actually tuning in with a radio is pretty bad...there's no reception) but they often use a set of commercials that are just for web listeners. I heard this commercial for a fertility clinic I think every 20 minutes. What?
- it's a crazy, crazy mix of music. It's by no means groundbreaking and eclectic. The songs DO repeat eventually. But you never know if the next song is going to be Queen, Right Said Fred, Rihanna, or a German song. Keeps you awake!
- for whatever reason it doesn't have as many buffering problems in the office.

Tune in here! An external player will pop up somewhere depending on computer defaults.

Mmkay that's all for now.