“Amyl and The Sniffers storm the chart,” read the headline, as ARIA did its best to back the local underdog. It was not inaccurate, but the kicker was in the third paragraph: “Tyler, The Creator takes the top spot for the first time with Chromakopia.”

The US rapper had outsold the Melbourne punks, 7716 units to 7543.

“We would have loved to see Amyl reach No.1, but we’re still going to shout from the rooftops about them hitting No.2,” says Annabelle Herd, chief executive of ARIA. “It is an amazing achievement … We are constantly, proudly, advocating for Australian musicians.”

Only six Australian albums have topped the ARIA chart this year. “In a world of highly globalised content and discovery platforms, it’s really challenging for Australian artists to cut through,” Herd says. “The home-market advantages afforded by local media just don’t apply like they used to.”

There’s no suggestion of impropriety on anybody’s part in this high-stakes drama of fame, fortune and creative marketing machinations. But in all the feverish bundling of merch and tickets as a means to claiming pop chart supremacy, what really leaps out is the diminished value of the actual album.

Indeed, for some Tyler fans, the chart-topping disc is next to worthless.

“For some reason I can’t get my CD to work,” one fan told me on Reddit this week. He managed to “rip it” later, only to report that it was definitely an “earlier version” of the final album that is now enjoying hundreds of millions of streams worldwide.

So, was this chart-topping album even the one that most people are now listening to, or was it a not-quite-finished test pressing? The absence of song titles, credits or lyrics on the plain cardboard sleeve points to the latter. “Fairly positive these were rushed out to be shipped first week so they would count towards first week sales,” one fan speculated online.

Even if it was a slightly different album, ARIA’s rules would allow it. “It is quite common for there to be product variants,” Herd says, citing as an example the “special tour pack” often issued with additional live recordings.

“This practice is certainly not unique to international artists, and has been used to great success by a number of Australian acts, some of whom have topped the charts with re-releases and similar,” Herd says.

Amyl and the Sniffers, meanwhile, are taking it on the chin. Currently on tour in Europe before their summer dates back home, they had a simple message for their crestfallen management on chart day: “How good is number two.”

The band’s manager, Simone Ubaldi, is devastated but ultimately philosophical.

“The ARIA charts are a game, and we played very hard, but we lost,” she says. “The reality is Tyler is a much bigger artist than Amyl, with a much bigger arsenal. For a self-funded independent Australian band to come within 150 sales of a No.1 record is an incredible achievement.

“From a global marketing perspective, it’s deeply annoying to have missed out. But that’s all it amounts to: a marketing strategy. It’s very high-stakes silliness.”

Amyl and the Sniffers play Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, on Jan 24 and the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, on Jan 25. Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia tour hits Australia in August 2025.

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