ARIA Chart Positions Project A 2025 Australian Artist Chart Disgrace

ARIA’s first six months of published music charts are projecting that Australian artist chart figures for 2025 will be a disaster. All that recent fluff about changing the chart formula looks like just ‘deck chairs being rearranged on the Titanic’ based on how Australian artists have performed on the ARIA chart so far in 2025.

Initial reports tallying chart positions for the first half of 2025 estimate a potential worst year ever for Australian music. In fact, make that about any music released in the last four years.

Australian chart positions collated into a six-month list suggest that not one song released after 2021 is even in the Top 10 so far this year.

This is what the Top 10 is estimated to look like based on six months of ARIA chart combined:

1. Glass Animals – Heat Waves (from 2020)
2. The Weeknd – Blinding Lights (from 2020)
3. Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber – Stay (from 2021)
4. Dua Lipa – Levitating (from 2020)
5. Lewis Capaldi – Someone Loved You (2019)
6. Elton John and Dua Lipa – Cold Cold Heart (from 2021)
7. Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (from 1977)
8. Ed Sheeran – Bad Habits (from 2021)
9. The Killers – Mr Brightside from 2004)
10. The Weeknd – Save Your Tears (from 2021)

So, how is it looking for Australian music? Let’s take a closer look.

The biggest ‘Aussie’ song to date, The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s song ‘Stay’ from 2021 is at number 3. It took nine songwriters and four producers to create. Charlton Howard (aka The Kid Laroi) is the only Australian credited on the song. ‘Stay’ is an American production. It was 100% written and produced in America but ARIA still claims it is an Australian song. The Kid Laroi is also at 60 with Miley Cyrus for ‘Without You’. Again, it is as Aussie as a giant Fosters can in a Sunset Blvd drug store.

The next Aussie down the list is Tones and I 2019 hit ‘Dance Monkey’. It is the 17th biggest song of the year. Toni Watson (Tones and I) ‘Dance Monkey’ is a genuine Aussie song but … from six years ago. Tones & I has had 25 “singles” released since ‘Dance Monkey’ but hasn’t had an ARIA chart hit since ‘Cloudy Day’ in 2021.

And that’s it for the Top 50 songs for the first half of 2025 unless you want to count Elton John and Dua Lipa’s ‘Cold Cold Heart’. (Spoiler alert: I don’t). The song is a reconstruction of Elton and Bernie Taupin’s songs “Rocket Man” (1972), “Kiss the Bride” (1983), “Sacrifice” (1989) and “Where’s the Shoorah?” (1976), so let’s move on.

Next down the list is Dean Lewis ‘Be Alright’ at 65. Aussie, yes. Current, no. This one is from 2017.

What about AC/DC’s 1980 hit ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’. That the 80th biggest song of the year. Aussie? Well, it was written by two Aussies, Angus and Malcolm Young (with Brian Johnston) and features three Aussies on the recording with Phil Rudd on drums. It was recorded in Nassau in the Bahamas. Malcolm was the only member of AC/DC to remain in Australia, right up to his death in 2017. Also, AC/DC ‘Thunderstruck’ is at 88. Rudd isn’t on that one, so we are down to two Aussie songwriters and two band members with one Australian resident .

Tame Impala ‘The Less I Know The Better’ is at 82. It is from 2015. It was written by Kevin Parker, an Aussie, and recorded in Western Australia. Pity its TEN YEARS OLD.

And a shoutout to Gotye and Kimbra. ‘Something That I Used To Know’ from 2011 is still in the Top 100 as well. (But full Aussie points to this one. It was written and recorded in Australia).

Goo Goo Dolls ‘Iris (1998), Journey ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ (1981), Toto ‘Africa’ (1982), Oasis ‘Wonderwall’ (1995), Bryan Adams ‘Summer of 69’ (1985), Nirvana ‘Smells Like teen Spirit’ (1991) and Fleetwood Mac ‘Go Your Own Way’ (1977) have done better than every other ‘Aussie’ song not listed.

ARIA continues to bang on about it being radio’s fault for not playing new music. This week’s Radio Airplay chart lists eight Australia songs out of 40 in the Top 40, or a percentage of 20%.

Tobiahs ‘Angel of Mine’ is at no 16 on the Airplay chart but it isn’t even in ARIA’s Top 500. Sonny Fodera & Clemintine Douglas ‘Tell Me’ is at 18 on the Airplay chart. It is not in the ARIA Top 400. Guy Sebastian ‘Maybe’ is at 20 on the radio airplay chart. It is not in the ARIA Top 500. Cyril & Mary Jo ‘Still Into You’, Airplay no 23, ARIA not in the Top 200. ‘Where Are You Now’ by Lost Frequencies and The Temper Trap. No 32 Airplay, ARIA not in the Top 300. ‘Somedays’ by Sonny Fodera, Jazzy & DOD. No. 35 Airplay, 85 ARIA.

Radio is supporting Aussie music. ARIA is not. Why? Because it is beholden to three major corporate record companies based in the USA or Europe. Sony Music and Warner Music headquarters are in New York and Universal Music Group is run out of The Netherlands.

Sony Music owned approximately $768 million in Spotify stock in 2018, Warner had $504 million. Universal is estimated to currently have a $4.74 billion stake in Spotify.

Spotify has been announced as the sponsor of the 2025, 2026 and 2027 ARIA Awards. Imagine the very company that is hold back Australian artist’s chart success is now sponsoring the very awards meant to celebrate them.

The ARIA chart formula is top heavy based on streaming. Streaming has no guarantee anyone is even in the room to hear the stream. If you leave a device streaming a playlist all day while you are out (to make it seem like someone is home) … it counts towards the ARIA chart. Even if you stream a playlist and you are home, songs you did not choose are counting towards the ARIA chart. And most of those playlists are curated outside Australia with no Australian content.

On the other hand, anything radio plays does not count towards the ARIA chart, so how is radio hindering the chart? It doesn’t even count towards the chart. That argument makes no sense. People listening to streaming services are choosing to not listen to radio to hear the streaming service. Its just ARIA’s excuse for its own inadequacy. Even if Tobias ‘Angel of Mine’ was number one on the Radio Airplay chart from January to December and played 100s of times and heard millions of times over … and it wouldn’t make any difference to the ARIA chart. The Killers 21-year-old song will always be ahead of it because it’s a playlist staple.

Based on the trajectory of the first six months of the year, ARIA will deliver another train wreck for the Australian music industry in 2025 and then celebrate it with a fashion show at the end of the year as it always does.

NB: All figures are estimates based on weekly ARIA chart positions January to July 2025, weighted by chart position and longevity on chart for 2025 only.

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Tagged as: ARIA, Australia, Australian music, music industry