Image courtesy of NPR's Planet Money blog

Do you find charts, graphs and data painful for your eyes? How about your ears? What?  Are these numbing nuggets of numbers not singing to you?

Thanks to some plucky reporters at National Public Radio you can now experience the full musical majesty of visual data.

These intrepid audio-detectives decided to investigate the possibility economusic when they faced the problem of trying to describe economic graphs to their listeners.

Take the Case-Schiller Index which measures home prices. Visually it is a good indicator of the “housing boom”. It shows the huge increase in home prices, followed by the huge decrease and subsequent recession … and looks like this.

But what happens when you take those numbers, transpose them onto a musical staff, and get an opera singer to record them?

Well, this.

Also of interest, here’s Miami’s musical representation - the city with one of the biggest booms and busts, and Dallas – a city that saw relatively constant home prices.

We are looking forward to the day when the 1300 pages of the Federal Budget is delivered in song.

iTunes better be ready.  Check out the full story here.