You may think that something is wrong with the audio in the clip above, but the song, “A Very Silent Night.” was actually recorded at a frequency that’s only audible by dogs–apparently an untapped market, since it reached No. 1 on the New Zealand charts over Christmas. That success has so emboldened New Zealand’s Society For Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals, it’s thinking of releasing the song in the US and Australia.

Where it’ll probably do well, since while the single can’t be heard by most humans (although I did get a headache once the YouTube kicked in) its sales do raise funds for the SPCA, and if there’s one thing that’s true about Americans, it’s that we love our cute little puppies. In New Zealand “Silent” even got radio airplay, driving dogs mad and causing one to actually physically attack the nearby radio it was playing from. Somehow I don’t see it getting quite the radio pickup on research-dominated American radio, since a song that resembles nothing more than dead air to a human listener would result in lots of dial-futzing, but perhaps the novelty-song market will actually surprise me.

Global hit hopes for pooch music [BBC]