NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts, Big Mac index and Bird Migration Explorer

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Kicking off the third week of 'On the Net Today' – your go-to newsletter for maximizing your internet experience! Three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) we curate a selection of three valuable resources to enhance your browsing time.

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Here are three recommendations we've prepared for you today:

• NPR's "Tiny Desk Concerts": a phenomenon in the music world

• The Big Mac Index by The Economist

• Bird Migration explorer: an interactive guide to migratory birds

NPR's "Tiny Desk Concerts": a phenomenon in the music world

National Public Radio (NPR) in the United States has a musical product, "Tiny Desk Concerts," which has over the years become an inescapable reference in the music world and one of the most successful digital products on the internet.

The Tiny Desk Concerts music series began almost 15 years ago, in April 2008, without a concrete plan from its promoters. In fact, it was born because the artist Laura Gibson was performing at a bar in Austin, The Thirsty Nickel, in 2008, during the popular South by Southwest festival that is held every year in the capital of Texas. The noise from the venue prevented her voice and music from being heard properly. In the audience were Bob Boilen, host of the popular NPR program "All Songs Considered," and NPR Music editor Stephen Thompson. Seeing what happened, they decided to invite the singer to play in a more intimate and quiet space, the NPR offices in Washington DC, next to the small desk that Boilen occupied. The performance was recorded on video and broadcast on the NPR website. It was the first "Tiny Desk Concert."

• Laura Gibson: Tiny Desk Concert

There was really no initial plan to launch a concert series, but the simple formula was gaining fans and arousing the interest of the audience.

In its early days, "Tiny Desk Concerts" was a very niche online space, but over the years it has become one of the most important music platforms in the world. Renowned artists have participated in it, and for others, less known, it has represented a crucial moment in their artistic careers.

The concerts are intimate sessions, in which all the participants must stand behind Boilen's desk and play and sing live.

Here are two examples of "Tiny Desk Concerts," featuring Adele and Taylor Swift: 

The concerts are organized by the team of the radio program All Songs Considered of NPR Music. During the pandemic, the concerts stopped being held at the NPR offices and were recorded from the artists' homes: those editions were renamed Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts.

The videos are also uploaded to the NPR Music YouTube channel, which has more than 9 million followers. They accumulate millions of views.

Among the concerts with the most views in the history of the program are the following (data collected in May 2024):

• Dua Lipa (124 million)

• Mac Miller (116 million)

• Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals (106 million)

• C. Tangana (54 million)

• Justin Bieber (37 million)

• Adele (36 million)

• Alicia Keys (36 million)

• Tyler, The Creator (34 million)

• Natalia Lafourcade (30 million)

• Harry Styles (28 million)

• Coldplay (24 million)

• Usher (23 million)

• Taylor Swift (22 million)

• The Cranberries (20 million)

Links:

• Tiny Desk Concerts - NPR

• NPR Music

• AP agency has told the story of this format in detail:

  • Video: NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk Concert’ series has become a gigantic pop culture phenomenon - AP

  • ‘NPR is cool!’ How Tiny Desk Concerts became a pop culture phenomenon – APCover of The Washington Post's visual report that is part of the Pulitzer-winning series

The Big Mac Index by The Economist

The Big Mac Index was invented by The Economist in 1986 as a “lighthearted guide” to whether currencies are at their “correct” level.

This index utilizes the price of a Big Mac – McDonald's most popular hamburger – across different countries to assess whether exchange rates align with reality.

It is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), the notion that, as explained by The Economist “in the long run exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalize the prices of an identical basket of goods and services (in this case, a burger) in any two countries.”

Disparities in local Big Mac prices can indicate the exchange rate that should exist between the respective currencies. Consequently, the index reveals whether a currency is overvalued or undervalued relative to others.

Burgernomics was never intended as a precise gauge of currency misalignment, merely a tool to make exchange-rate theory more digestible. Yet the Big Mac index has become a “global standard, included in several economic textbooks and the subject of dozens of academic studies.” For those who take their fast food more seriously, we also calculate a gourmet version of the index.

Links: 

• Big Mac Index – The Economist

• Data Download and Methodology - Github

Bird Migration explorer: an interactive guide to migratory birds

In recognition of World Migratory Bird Day on May 11, 2024, let's explore the Bird Migration Explorer, an interactive guide offered by The National Audubon Society. This remarkable resource unveils the heroic annual journeys made by over 450 bird species, and the challenges they face along the way across the Americas.

This website allows you to learn about different bird species, discover which migratory birds are present in each place, or what conservation challenges they face.

Bird Migration Explorer, available in English and Spanish, is an impressive visual and interactive resource that allows you to learn about bird migration in a very attractive way.

Audubon also publishes a magnificent digital magazine, Audubon Magazine.

Links:

• Bird Migration Explorer - Audubon

• Audubon

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