Four people in critical condition following crush at Asake's latest Brixton Academy show
Eight people were hospitalised - with four in a critical condition - after crowd control issues occurred during a show by Asake at the Brixton Academy in London last night.

According to reports, a large number of people turned up at the London venue without tickets for last night's show, the final of three sell out performances by the afrobeats artist at the Academy. Ahead of the first of those shows on Sunday, a post on Asake's Twitter profile urged fans without tickets to stay away, confirming that no additional tickets would be on sale on the night.

As a large crowd started to build up outside the venue yesterday evening - and with the particularly cold weather in London at the moment - some of those without tickets allegedly tried to force their way into the Academy building, which is thought to have resulted in a crowd crush, in turn resulting in multiple injuries. Eight people in total were hospitalised, four with serious injuries.

Police were quickly on the scene, Brixton Police Station being just across the road from the Academy. As officers and venue staff sought to deal with the crowd issues the show itself was abandoned and gig goers were asked to leave the building.

A statement issued by police this morning confirmed that "detectives are investigating the circumstances which led to four people sustaining critical injuries in Brixton", adding that they were called to the Academy at 9.30pm last night "following reports that a large number of people were attempting to force entry to the venue".

"Officers, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade attended and found a number of people with injuries believed to have been caused by crushing", the statement then confirmed. "Eight people were taken by ambulance to hospital, four of whom remain in a critical condition. LAS treated two other less seriously injured people at the scene".

"An urgent investigation is under way led by detectives from Specialist Crime", the statement concluded. "Cordons remain in place at the location as officers continue work at the scene. Nobody has been arrested".

In a post on Instagram this morning, Asake himself said: "My heart is with those who were injured last night and caused any form of discomfort. I pray you get well soonest. I am also in the process of reaching out to individuals".

"I still do not have the full brief from the venue management themselves as to what led to the disruption at the entrance of the Brixton Academy", he went on, "but we are thankful that all was peaceful at the end. For my people who enjoyed the beginning of my performance, I am sorry that it was cut short. Thank you for your unbelievable love London. I love you too much!"

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Music industry sues yet another US internet service provider for copyright infringement
Another music industry led lawsuit has been filed against an American internet service provider accused of not doing enough to combat infringement on its networks. And just in time for Christmas! This time it's BMG, Universal Music and Concord who have come together to sue Altice USA, which operates the Optimum internet and cable TV service.

The extent to which ISPs are obliged to combat online piracy on their networks has been debated ever since the 2000s. Internet companies are usually protected from liability when their customers use their networks or servers to access or distribute unlicensed content under the copyright safe harbour, providing they have systems in place to deal with any infringing content or infringing users they are made aware of.

Quite how good those systems for dealing with infringing content and users need to be wasn't initially very clear, but after BMG sued American net firm Cox Communications in 2014 it was ultimately confirmed that a shoddy system wasn't good enough.

Certainly BMG demonstrated that Cox's systems were sufficiently shoddy to deprive it of safe harbour protection. Which meant it could be held liable for its users' infringement. And when the majors followed BMG's lead and sued Cox as well, those liabilities ended up running to a neat billion dollars.

A plethora of other ISPs have been sued in the wake of the Cox case by both the major music companies and a consortium of independent film producers.

The ISPs have worked hard to try to get those cases dismissed, raising various technicalities along the way, mainly about how the piracy monitoring companies employed by the music and movie industries operate. But in the main those efforts have failed and a number of ISPs have now reached out of court settlements with the copyright owners.

Which brings us to the latest lawsuit against Optimum operator Altice USA. "Through the provision of high-speed internet services, Altice has knowingly contributed to, and earned substantial profits from, copyright infringement committed by thousands of its subscribers", that lawsuit states, arguing - as have other similar lawsuits - that some ISPs tolerated piracy, especially BitTorrent file-sharing, because it helped them sell more expensive higher speed internet services.

"The infringement that Altice has abided, profited from, and materially contributed to has injured plaintiffs, their recording artists and songwriters, and others whose livelihoods depend on the proper licensing of music and the ability to be fairly compensated for the use of their music and earn a living from their vocations", the new legal filing continues.

"For years", it adds, "Altice deliberately refused to take reasonable measures to curb its customers from using its service to infringe copyrights, including plaintiffs' copyrights - even after Altice was provided specific and detailed notice of particular customers engaging in repeated and prolonged acts of infringement. Millions of infringements by users of Altice's internet services have been detected, and Altice has been given detailed and specific written notice of those infringements".

"Those notices advised Altice of its subscribers' blatant and systematic use of Altice's service to illegally distribute plaintiffs' copyrighted works using BitTorrent. Rather than work with plaintiffs or take other meaningful or effective steps to curb this massive infringement, Altice chose to permit infringement to run rampant, prioritising its own profits over the plaintiffs' rights".

Getting into some legalities, the lawsuit goes on: "The law is clear that a party that knowingly and materially assists someone engaging in copyright infringement faces liability for that infringement. Further, when a party has a direct financial interest in the infringing activity and the right and practical ability to stop or limit that activity, that party faces liability unless it exercises that right and ability to prevent the infringement".

"Altice deliberately turned a blind eye to its subscribers' infringement and collected profits from those subscribers in the form of ongoing subscription fees", it argues. "Altice failed to terminate the subscriptions of or otherwise take meaningful action against repeat infringers it knew about".

"Despite its professed commitment to discipline repeat offenders (and its legal responsibility to do so), Altice routinely disregarded the harm its subscribers caused to plaintiffs using Altice's internet services and continued to provide those services to known serial infringers and to collect subscription fees from them. And Altice permitted its subscribers to sustain their infringing activities for months and even years at a time with impunity".

It remains to be seen if Altice now pushes back with similar arguments to those unsuccessfully presented by the other ISPs that have been targeted with lawsuits of this kind, or whether it skips that stage and goes straight to negotiating a settlement.

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Warner Music partners with digital fashion firm DressX
Warner Music has announced a partnership with and investment in DressX, a digital fashion retailer.

Because, yes, sorry people, selling digital merch and virtual clothing to consumers obsessed with their online identities is the future. And if you haven't got yourself a "meta-closet vision" sorted out yet, well, frankly, you're just not fully prepared for the Web3 NFT blockchain metaverse reality that we're all marching ourselves into. What an idiot!

Unless, of course, that physical t-shirt stall you've got set up at the back of your real world gig venue is some attempt to get a 'cotton revival' off the ground early. In which case, well done you. What a pioneer you truly are!

Meanwhile, back in the metaverse, Warner Music's Chief Digital Officer Oana Ruxandr is super excited about all the 3D and AR virtual clothing that the major's artists will be able to create with DressX, and then flog off to fans for sharing on Instagram, Snapchat and other digital platforms.

"The representation of our future digital selves will be as important and, if you're measuring by sheer volume of interactions, maybe more important than how we represent ourselves physically", says she.

"As our digital identities become exponentially more robust and impactful", she adds, "we are focused on building partnerships that will enable WMG and our artists. With its leadership in wearables and sustainability, DressX is exactly the type of partner we need sprinting alongside us as we build for the future".

DressX founders Daria Shapovalova and Natalia Modenova chip in: "We are extremely proud to partner with Warner Music Group and their incredible artists to continue building and scaling the DressX meta-closet vision for the future. Digital fashion is a visual language for communicating and creating bonds online, and at DressX we use technology to provide the utility for digital wearables using augmented reality, machine learning and blockchain".

"Digital merch and swag from musicians will definitely be a part of the digital wardrobes of fans", they go on, "and it's great to see that more and more stakeholders believe in this new domain that is already changing the fashion industry at a scale. Every day, we are getting closer to our aim of giving a meta-closet to every person in the world, making fashion accessible to everyone through innovation and tech".

By the way, when Ruxandra says DressX are leaders in "sustainability" as well as "wearables", she is referring to the firm's investment in "science-based evaluation of the carbon footprint of its digital fashions". All that science will ensure that the digital tat DressX creates with Warner's artists is the most environmentally friendly digital tat on the market. Well, second most. No digital tat at all being the most environmentally-friendly of course.

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BPI launches new award for artists that achieve a billion UK streams
UK record industry trade group BPI has announced it is launching a new strand to its BRIT Certified scheme, that being the programme that declares albums silver, gold or platinum.

Though the new element - which will see the presentation of an all-new BRIT Billion award - will celebrate the career-long achievements of artists, in that it will be presented to acts whose tracks have been streamed more than a billion times in the UK.

The BRIT Billion award will launch in the spring, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the BPI and its certifications programme. And just to clarify, although the award is called the BRIT Billion, the classic British definition of a billion - ie a million million - is not being employed. They mean a thousand million. Look, the actual physical award even specifically says so.

To be fair, the UK government formally adopted what was actually the US definition of a billion the year after the BPI launched. Then Prime Minister Harold Wilson declared: "The word 'billion' is now used internationally to mean 1000 million and it would be confusing if British ministers were to use it in any other sense". And if it's good enough for Wilson, it's good enough for me.

Anyway, here's outgoing BPI boss Geoff Taylor following Wilson's lead when he use's the 'billion' word: "With total weekly audio streams in the UK now regularly exceeding the three billion mark, it seems an appropriate moment to recognise exceptional artist achievement through streaming, as the primary currency for recorded music".

The new BRIT Billion prize, he adds, "will sit alongside our existing Certified Awards, giving artists and their label and management teams the special opportunity to celebrate outstanding UK career success in streaming, and the valued contribution they have made to British music".

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Peter Andre accuses radio stations of false advertising by playing classic Christmas song
Former pop star Peter Andre has called on radio stations to stop playing classic Christmas song 'It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year', on the grounds that Christmas is actually shit.

That's not quite how he put it. But it's close. Andre says he's discovered the results of a survey which recently found that British people prefer summer holidays to Christmas. A sizeable majority, in fact - 78% - reckoned that their summer break was a more wonderful time than crappy old Christmas.

"The results of the survey do not surprise me", says Andre in an open letter to all British radio stations. "Sure, festive frolics are fun but let's face it, Christmas can get repetitive and pressurising. It's much more exciting to visit new places, experience new things and make meaningful memories, and there's no better place to do that than on holiday".

It's not clear what question the 2000 people who were polled in this survey were actually asked, but we do know that it was conducted on behalf of holiday seller On The Beach, which - coincidentally - has just appointed Andre as its Head Of Summer Holidays.

I mean, sure. Of course that's a job that he's actually doing and which definitely involves more than just moaning a bit about Christmas songs.

"In my new role, all I can do now is politely ask radio stations to respect the British people's viewpoint and not play 'It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year' at Christmas anymore", Andre continues. "Perhaps they can play it on a loop in July instead?"

Oh yeah, that makes total sense. If another time of year is more wonderful, then we should definitely be playing the Andy William's classic then. Although, there is a chance that the lyrics about "kids jingle belling", "carols in the snow" and "much mistletoeing" might just remind us that we do actually quite like Christmas after all.

Anyway, this is all quite light-hearted nonsense, isn't it? Although Andre does then get more technical in his official moan as Head Of Summer Holidays for On The Beach, telling radio stations that by playing the 'Wonderful' song in December, they are breaking rules on false advertising. And those aren't some rules he's just made up - he's referring to the official rules that appear in section three of the broadcast code put together by the UK's Committee Of Advertising Practice.

"By playing this track you are giving your listeners false hope that Christmas and winter in general is the most wonderful time of the year, when in fact, it isn't", he says. "And I even have data to prove it. Recent findings from On The Beach have confirmed what we already suspected; 78% of people, so more than three quarters of Brits, believe that going on holiday is better than Christmas".

"Therefore, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the population (85%) agree the Andy Williams song is factually incorrect", he adds, "proving Christmas simply is not the most wonderful time of the year".

Who suspected that? And where did this 85% figure come from? Three quarters of British people don't actually like Christmas that much, but 85% have a beef with the Williams song. Is that what you're telling me?

Andre and On The Beach don't give any further detail on that number, but they do have some more stats. They reckon that just 38% of Brits love Christmas, while 39% of the population identifies as "Christmas neutral". Putting even more of a dampener on things, the survey found that 57% of respondents are "dreading or unexcited" about Christmas this year.

"We could not agree with Pete more", says On The Beach's Zoe Harris, weakly attempting to give the impression that Andre came up with this idea - or even wrote a word of this open letter - himself. "The survey findings clearly demonstrate a shift of preference to holidays being more magical and memorable than Christmas. People want to enjoy experiences rather than be gifted a material present".

"What's more", she goes on, "people want to take time for themselves during precious days away from work, enjoying the joyous moments in life, such as sunbathing and sea-swimming, rather than being bound by the constant pressures of Christmas when people rarely take time to relax".

To be fair, Zoe's version of Christmas does sound awful. Maybe she and Pete just need to make a bit more of an effort. After all, who can afford to think about a summer holiday right now? Much better to spend the few quid that haven't gone on your heating bill on a tree and a few gifts and try to make the best of it.

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APPOINTMENTS

Universal Music's Republic Records in the US has promoted Beau Benton to SVP Media & Operations. "It's been such a pleasure working with Beau every day for the last ten years", says EVP Media & Artist Relations, Joseph Carozza. "As a colleague and as a friend, I've had a front row seat to his media expertise, his love and commitment to artists and the team, and his infectious energy".

Artist management firm UROK has hired Tayla Dhyll as Head Of Audience and Sophie Lane as Senior Artist Manager. It has also promoted Chris Kasa to SVP Artist Management, Afoma Ojukwu to Artist Relations Manager, and Annabelle Scott-Curry to Creative Director. "We are THRILLED to have people within our team that share the same vision as us on the future of UROK Management", says co-founder Sam Eldridge. "It has been an incredible year for us and the artists we represent, and we're excited to take on new and exciting clients to continue learning and growing together as a team".

Kobalt has hired Kate Loesch as Senior Director, Creative. "I am THRILLED to be joining the incredible talent and creative team at Kobalt", she says. "It feels good to be part of a team that truly values the music. Kobalt brings a breath of fresh air to the industry with their impressive roster, inclusive culture and creative transparency. I look forward to being hands-on in the creative process as we continue to innovate and push boundaries".

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RELEASES

Central Cee has released new single 'Let Go'.

Måneskin have released new single 'La Fine' - a collaboration with Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello. The band's new album, 'Gossip', is out on 13 Jan.

French The Kid has released new single 'Snow'. Very much not a festive single, despite the title and timing of the release.

Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday.

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The battle for Christmas number one has commenced
It's the penultimate Friday before Christmas and I think we all know what that means. It means that the race to Christmas number one has begun. Since one minute past midnight this morning, every one of your streams and downloads has been nudging your favourite artists towards the most coveted chart position of the year, which we all definitely still care about.

Well, in theory every stream and download counts towards the big Christmas chart. Except where it's a stream or download of a track that for some tedious chart rule reason isn't eligible. Plus, of course, for most of the artists you're streaming, the Christmas number one spot is well out of reach. If the artist isn't actively trying to get there - or doesn't even have a perennial festive favourite in their oeuvre - there's basically no hope that they'll get the Christmas Day number one honour this year.

So who is the running? That's the big question, isn't it? Well, worry not, I'm here to help. We've looked at the contenders and have picked out the ten we think are most likely to make it to the top of the chart next Friday, making them the number one single on Christmas Day 2022, before they crash out of the top 40 again the following week, as is the tradition.

When we first started planning this round up, there was still a chance that England might get to the final of the men's football World Cup. There are various wintery football songs that would have been in the running for the top of the chart had the team made it to this weekend's final game - even more so if they had won it. But thankfully, they crashed out last weekend, meaning we don't have to deal with any of those tedious sporty pop tracks.

So, let us rejoice in not having to think about the 700th rework of 'Three Lions', and instead look at the ten singles that could be Christmas number one this year.

LadBaby - Food Aid
Let's just get this out of the way right now. YouTubers Mark and Roxanne Doyle - aka LadBaby - have had the number one single on Christmas Day for the last four years in a row. Can they do it again? Yes. Why would you even question that at this stage?

It's all to raise money for food bank charity The Trussell Trust, and while you might think that the government could have figured out a way to end the widespread reliance on food banks in the UK by now, they have not. I mean, they haven't even tried. And with the cost of living crisis raging, the need to support food bank operations remains more important than ever.

Last year the YouTube stars teamed up with Ed Sheeran and Elton John for their fourth festive release, 'Sausage Rolls For Everyone', a song which (I have just discovered) also went to number seven in New Zealand, for some reason.

It seemed like they probably couldn't top that, but this year they've got together with finance expert Martin Lewis to record a new version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' under the banner 'Food Aid'.

And yeah, OK, that's not really topping a collaboration with Sheeran and John, but you're forgetting that when this latest LadBaby song was announced earlier this month an "exciting variety of musical collaborators" were also promised.

And who are they? No less than Paul McCartney, Stormzy, Adele, Robbie Williams, and both Liam and Noel Gallagher. Well, lookalikes of Paul McCartney, Stormzy, Adele, Robbie Williams, and both Liam and Noel Gallagher. Some of them not even particularly good lookalikes. A few of those fake celebs do a bit of singing, but really the new track is by the Doyles and Martin Lewis.

Will it get to number one next week? Yesterday I would have said certainly, now I don't know. Will everyone see the big reveal - ie that Food Aid is just Lewis and a load of lookalikes - as a hilarious joke and another helping of classic LadBaby humour, or - in fact - as a bit of a let down?

The cause is still a good one, of course, even if more people seem to be expressing concerns this year about how a lucrative LadBaby business has been built on the back of these charitable records.

Presumably the Doyles wouldn't have come back with a fifth track if they didn't feel like they'd got a winner. But every year that they return in a bid to win the Christmas number one race, they inevitably increase the chances of there being a time when it just doesn't happen. [Listen here]

Sidemen - Christmas Drillings (feat JME)
LadBaby are not the only YouTubers vying for the festive number one spot. KSI-led YouTube rap group Sidemen are also in the running to top the chart.

This is all part of a challenge they set themselves recently. Splitting into two teams, both were tasked with writing a track to see who could get the most views on YouTube. One team was given a budget of £100,000, the other £100. The side with a hundred grand to spend hired JME to guest on their track and wrote a Christmas song called 'Christmas Drillings'.

None of this was actually done with the Christmas number one in mind, but if you put out a Christmas song just before Christmas, then that puts you in the running. Both tracks were actually released earlier this month and currently 'Christmas Drillings' is sitting low down in the chart at number 58. We'll find out later today if it's risen any further in the last week, which could be an indication of its potential for topping the chart seven days from now.

It's probably worth noting that collectively, across their various YouTube channels, Sidemen have a lot more subscribers than LadBaby. It's not all about that though, is it? Can Sidemen compete with the LadBaby machine? Can the real JME compete with a fake Adele? Time will tell.

One thing is for sure though, this is the only track on this list that has a verse about murdering Santa with his own sleigh. [Listen here]

Lewis Capaldi - Pointless
Lewis Capaldi joked last week that this track was getting "hammered in the charts by Christmas songs", before saying that he had "a gripe to grind with [Michael] Bublé", whose 2011 version of 'It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas' was charting higher.

After that, Bublé responded via TikTok insisting that he had no beef with Capaldi and would be backing 'Pointless' to get to Christmas number one. Will that be enough to nudge it up to the top of the festive chart? No, don't be silly, I just thought that story was fun and worth another mention.

Lewis Capaldi has no chance. [Listen here]

Raye - Escapism (feat 070 Shake)
Another seeming rank outsider, but this very much not festive song was number two on the latest chart after going viral on TikTok.

Can Raye ride that social media wave all the way to number one next week? Well, all indications are that when this week's chart is published later today, she will have fallen slightly. She should still be in the top five though, so who knows? [Listen here]

Stormzy - Firebabe
Also not festive, but looking like being in this week's top five - in an upwards trend - is Stormzy's latest single 'Firebabe'.

Stormzy's everywhere at the moment - he's even got a lookalike in that LadBaby video - having just released his latest album, and clearly a lot of people are choosing to listen to him over festive tunes just now.

It's probably going to be an uphill struggle to jump far enough up the top five in the next week to get to the top spot, but it's not impossible. [Listen here]

Lizzo - Someday At Christmas
Lizzo recently released this cover of Stevie Wonder's 1967 track as an Amazon Original and it is rising up the charts fast. Expect to see it in the top ten this week, up from 31 (and 52 the previous week).

It definitely has momentum behind it - despite being an Amazon exclusive - and should end up in a good position next week. A good position or the best position? [Listen here]

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
Mariah Carey's always popular Christmas classic is currently at number one in the singles chart and looks like having no trouble staying there again this week.

We've seen this before though. Carey's 1994 track does very well every December as people start dusting off their Christmas playlists, simply by being a very popular Christmas song. It finally make it to number one pre-Christmas in 2020, 26 years after its release.

But when it comes to the more strategic Christmas chart battle, it's never yet been able to compete. Last year it ended up at number four, which is good, but not - I think we can all agree - number one. [Listen here]

Wham - Last Christmas
Another always popular Christmas classic, 'Last Christmas' ended up at number three on last year's Christmas chart, ahead of Mariah Carey, when it was actually the most streamed track of the week running up to Christmas. It was at number three last week and we're expecting it to rise at least one place this week.

But as those more active campaigns to top the chart come into play today and over the next week - pushing people to buy downloads, which carry more weight on the chart - the fact that it's mainly being streamed will put Wham's festive favourite at a disadvantage. [Listen here]

Ed Sheeran & Elton John - Merry Christmas
Here's an interesting one. This was the big contender for last year's Christmas number one - right up until the point that LadBaby announced that they would be coming back for a fourth time.

Then it turned out that Sheeran and John would also be appearing on that LadBaby track, which guaranteed them the festive top spot, but also put this song out of the running. We'd sort of forgotten that it existed, but apparently lots of other people hadn't, because it's made a very strong showing in recent weeks.

Sitting at number four on last week's chart, it is currently the main rival to Mariah Carey and Wham for this week's number one. Could the song make a big comeback this year and break LadBaby's run of Christmas number ones? It's success is likely to be mainly down to streaming activity, so that may prove to be its undoing, but we shall see. [Listen here]

The Kunts - Fuck The Tories
What would Christmas be without The Kunts? They're back with their third attempt at topping the festive chart. They've never yet managed it, but they've made it to number five twice, with 'Boris Johnson Is A Fucking Cunt' in 2020 and 'Boris Johnson Is Still A Fucking Cunt' last year.

All this despite the fact that their campaign has a much lower budget than any of the other contenders, and the sweary content of their band name and songs means they get very little media support and absolutely no radio play (although there is a SFW version).

This year Boris Johnson is no longer UK Prime Minister. So - while feelings about him may remain the same - The Kunts have turned their ire on the entire Conservative Party with 'Fuck The Tories'. I guess it sends pretty much the same message as the LadBaby single, but in clearer terms. And feels less like an attempt to sell some merch. [Listen here]

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