Old hit singles and albums to disappear from ARIA top 50 under new rules

Old hits from big pop stars are out in the new-look ARIA charts, to give Aussie artists a better shot at making the top 50.

Kathy McCabe

@McCabeRadar

3 min read

June 24, 2025 - 6:30AM

Music

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The old hits you love by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Fleetwood Mac and more will be booted off the top 50 in the biggest shake-up of the ARIA charts in the streaming era.

In an attempt to flush more new music into the top 50 albums and singles, and the top 20 Australian Artist leaderboards, ARIA will unveil dramatically new-look charts in September.

Under the revised criteria, those four charts will only feature music released within the last two years.

So bye bye to all the Taylor Swift records except The Tortured Poets Department, Sheeran’s Divide and Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 classic Rumours, which has been rusted onto the top 50 for 403 weeks.

Those country hits by Luke Combs and Zach Byran which have hung around for years will also get punted from the main charts.

The Killers classic hit Mr Brightside will find a new chart home after 20 years. Picture: Tony Gough

All the greatest hits compilations that have been on the charts consistently since their release forever will disappear, including Eminem’s Curtain Call (402 weeks) and Elton John’s Diamonds (336 weeks).

The Australian Artist top 20 singles would look wildly different if the changes came in this week, with 13 songs given the boot including Vance Joy’s unrelenting Riptide which has spent 360 weeks on the chart.

The old stuff will now migrate to new charts called ARIA On Replay.

ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd said the changes are an attempt to remove barriers to new music from Australian and international artists busting into the top 50 or the top 20 local artist charts.

Vance Joy’s Riptide will finally retire from the main charts after a decade. Picture: Jonathan Ng

She said it meant the freshest tunes and records will no longer have to compete with all the music ever made which is readily available on demand via streaming.

“What are you gonna do when you’re competing with all of the world’s best music ever released, as people have said you’re competing with the Beatles or Coldplay or whoever, and it just means that the chart stays pretty stagnant, week to week,” she said.

The Australian music industry has been struggling to reignite the appetite for homegrown music as reflected by the lack of local releases on the ARIA charts, which measure music consumption via streaming, downloads and sales of physical formats including vinyl and CD.

The 2024 end of year charts featured only five Aussie singles including Riptide and three albums with The Kid Laroi’s The First Time the only new studio record.

Herd said ARIA spent a year reviewing the charts before introducing the two-year cut-off criteria; similar rules exist in France and New Zealand.

Fleetwood Mac’s rusted-on Rumours album will migrate to ARIA On Replay chart. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

“We are working on getting more Australians listening to Australian music. Everybody around the world is listening to Australian music in huge numbers which is fantastic, and I’m very confident that is going to translate into more Australians listening to local music,” she said.

“I think as soon as the change is made you’ll see more Australian artists in those charts.”

There is one exception for classic hits making the top 50 if they enjoy a viral moment, such as Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill returning to No.1 after it featured on a pivotal episode of Stranger Things in 2022.

Black Eyed Peas returned to the top 50 this week with their 2010 song Rock That Body which soundtracks a viral dance trend.

Trending vintage songs and albums will make the cut for 10 weeks only, if the title has not appeared in the Top 100 for at least ten years.