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How To Lay Cuckoo's Eggs
Here's a brief overview of how to lay your own Cuckoo's Eggs in the Napster nest.- Download and install Napster
- Download or rip songs for use as eggs.
- Edit the songs adding noise, sounds, and other info
- Copy your MP3 file into the Napster directories.
- Connect to Napster and start laying eggs
Step 1 is pretty easy... in fact you probably already have Napster installed. The laying of eggs will work best if you can install Napster on multiple machines so you have the best chance of letting many users connect.
Step 2 is pretty easy. You can either use Napster to download popular songs, or rip some from a CD using Musicmatch or CoolEdit. Pick really popular songs for maximum demand... remixes or duets are very popular downloads, as are live recordings. Try and use songs from artists who've expressed disapproval of Napster. Don't use songs from artists who support Napster and/or freely distribute their music in one form or another.
Step 3 requires a sound editor... I use Cool Edit. Open the song file you are going to use, leave about 20-40 seconds of the real song intact and then replace the remainder with silence, white noise, or other sound files... our Cuckoo Egg sound file works pretty well. Then save the file in MP3 format and copy it into your Napster shared directory.
Additional Steps:
A
good way to spread the word is to post teaser messages in various newsgroups and mailing list. A note to the effect of "Have you seen the new remix of Eminem on Napster?" will generate additional downloads and "buzz" about the song.
Be creative... name your files after some particularly controversial or rare song. Take a popular song and add "Live - NYC" or "Studio Outtake"
The new strain of cuckoo eggs is a more hearty and virulent strain to say the least. We are certain that this latest release will place this project beyond the narrow confines which have thus far defined it as a promotional gimmick - this time the only thing that is being promoted is debate about on-line piracy.
The new project involved putting songs on Napster that were constructed in the following manner. First we gathered approximately 45 top forty type songs then we snipped of all but the first 30 - 45 seconds and finally, just after the brief original intro we inserted a sound file that says "Congratulations - You must've goofed up somewhere." We followed this with cuckoo clock sounds for the remainder of the file. Naturally we made certain to make the songs the original length. FYI. The first voice sounds like a sample from Charlie Brown and the second voice seems to be Yosemite Sam
The nasty thing about these eggs/mp3 files is:
1. Napster users are more likely to download songs to completion even if they listen to a bit of the song as it downloads - which most don't.
2. If they don't listen to it right away and discover the true contents then the file will be visible to other Napster users as whatever artist name and track title it was originally labeled with and therefore is likely to be downloaded from them... further spreading the eggs. It's important to note here, that the first batch only appeared to be a particular band when downloaded from one of our machines because it was stored in that bands folder on our hard drive. In only one case did we actually name the file - Bruce Springsteen_American Skin (studio version) and that file is still on a number of strangers computers - even though it doesn't contain what it purports to be. If that was only one file that didn't even contain a misleading intro... think of the possibilities for 40 or more... Ooooh.
3. We are only using music that is album material, not live or unrecorded and therefore somehow excusable according to the way some Napsterites view the habits.
Now the great news which confirmed our suspicions about people downloading to completion - there are approximately 700 complete transfers happening a day - with about 250 or so the have errors. Previously there were only 500 and that was with all the machines going, at present we are only using 7out of 14. Remember - these files are labeled and will live longer and breed more...
We have read the posts that talk about how most Napster users have high bandwidth and will simply listen to the files to determine the legitimacy of the content. We have also heard about the idea for blacklisting users who you determine are passing eggs. We have responded to these proposals on various segments of this pages discussion board and on others, so we shall leave it at that.