Spoiler Alert: Someone's already collated data to predict the Hottest 100 winner

It's a bit early to call a winner already, but historically speaking, there's a chance this year's countdown winner is already well-familiar.

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Usually speaking, the triple j Hottest 100 winner isn't locked in concrete until at least November, and even then, predictions can be a touch shoddy. What we're trying to say, is that the first week of July is way too early to be predicting the winner that'll top the countdown in six months or so time, despite the fact that historically speaking, almost all of the recent winners would have come out by this time of the year (since 2010, only one winner - Macklemore's Thrift Shop, the winner everyone would prefer to forget about - has been released in the second half of the year).

However, that isn't stopping some people from giving it a fair crack already. Over at the triple j subreddit, a keen eye / someone still stuck bored in isolation has gone deep on the data, predicting a leader ahead of the pack when it comes to this year's countdown, and who to expect to be crowned come next January. The person - u/JJJSurvivorFan39 - took a dive into the depths of Spotify playlists, and collated the data of all the tracks in people's 'Hottest 100' / 'Hottest 100 Votes' playlists (which is an incredible way to do it, rather than having to come up with ten songs on the spot when voting opens and have a mental breakdown in the process). They went through around 1400 of these playlists, tallying every track in each one and ranking them from the most-included downwards, until a clear top 200 songs had formed.

It's smart. Although 1400 votes is a mere snapshot of a voting pool that often goes into the millions, it provides a little bit of a suggestion of what people are thinking just six months into the year, and while it'd be a big call to say the number one they've found through this experiment will end up at the top come January, it does offer some clear suggestions as to who is aiming for the top at the halfway point of the year, and which acts have been left in the dirt.

At the moment, the top five includes some past heavyweights of Australia's music world - The Avalanches come in at number two, while The Jungle Giants and Lime Cordiale follow just behind it - but at the top, at the current stage at least, is a bit of a curveball, in KLP and Stace Cadet's blazing club weapon Energy. As someone who has followed and supported both KLP and Stace Cadet since their respective day-dots, the prospects of both of them winding up at the top are mind-blowing, but considering the track has proved a break-out moment for both musicians off the back of a big twelve months or so for Australia's house world, it's not the most far-fetched thing in the world.

Flume's in there too, as is Tash Sultana, The Rubens and G Flip - four acts that have either made it to the top, or have gotten pretty damn close in doing so over the last few years. Unexpected 2020 success story Powfu is nestled at the top - not surprising, considering the song's status as a break-through TikTok hit - while newcomer merci, mercy is in there too.

There are a couple of glaring absences, though. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever just missed out, despite releasing one of the year's best homegrown records, and The 1975 are there too, perhaps as a result of having votes split across too many songs (after the success they've had with Notes On A Conditional Form, it'd be a real surprise to not see them get in).

Either way, you can take a dive into the full list below: