UNIFIED Music Group CEO and Founder Jaddan Comerford has shared an op-ed on LinkedIn about Australian music fans’ favourite topic: triple j’s Hottest 100.

Comerford is optimistic about Australian music in the piece, breaking down the statistics of local songs on the Hottest 100 and Hottest 200. “29% of the Hottest 100, and 56% of the Hottest 200 (101-200) were from Australian artists,” Comerford wrote. “Take a step back, and that’s 42.5% Australian songs in the top 200 songs of the year, as voted by the Australian public.”

While noting that the numbers are lower than in previous years, Comerford believes we still have something to celebrate, especially as 2024 was a year when international artists such as Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Gracie Abrams, and others dominated the music landscape like no other year (and that’s without going into Taylor Swift’s numerous editions of The Tortured Poets Department).

Comerford continued, “Incredible acts like Royel Otis, Dom Dolla, Amyl and the Sniffers and Ocean Alley (to name just a few) are going head-to-head with international artists both at home and abroad. They’re breaking streaming and ticket sales records like nothing we’ve seen before.”

Adding that triple j plays more than the mandated amount of local music on its station—more than 50% consistently—Comerford stated that while it’s easy to play the blame game for the high amount of international artists on this year’s Hottest 100, the Australian music industry would be far stronger and more effective if everyone worked together.

“triple j isn’t the problem. Imagine a world without it. I’d rather not,” he continued. “Let’s celebrate the people who put the work into building community and find new (and old) ways to celebrate Australian music.”

You can read Comerford’s op-ed here.

Just 29 songs from the Hottest 100 of 2024 featured Australian acts – the worst showing for local talent since the 1996 poll. Only the first two annual countdowns – 1993 and 1994 – are worse.

From 2017 until 2020, 65 Aussies were on deck before we reached 55, 57, and 52 in 2021, 2022, and 2023, respectively.

After this year’s Hottest 100 concluded, The Music’s Tyler Jenke investigated why so few Aussies were included in the poll and suggested what we can do to fix the situation.