The 26th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) were a series of award ceremonies which included the 2012 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fine Arts Awards and ARIA Awards. The latter ceremony took place on 29 November at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, and was telecast on Nine Network's channel Go! at 7:30pm. The final nominees for ARIA Award categories were announced on 3 October as well as nominees and winners for Fine Arts Awards and Artisan Awards. There was no peer judged "Single of the Year" category this year due to replacing it to "Song of the Year", although the "Album of the Year" category returned. The Highest Selling Single and Album categories were removed as they were in 2010.
For the third time in ARIA Awards history, public votes were being used for the categories, "Song of the Year", "Best Australian Live Act" and "Best International Artist"; and for the first time for the category "Best Video", which was moved from the Artisan Awards. The nominees for "Song of the Year" are the ten highest selling Australian single releases during the eligibility period. Sales from different releases by the same artist cannot be aggregated, and artists are only allowed to be nominated once, even if they have more than one song in the top ten. Songs must also have been released as singles during the eligibility period. The nominees for "Best Australian Live Act" were selected by a Judging School specifically formed for the purpose. The nominees for "Best Video" were selected by the ARIA Voting Academy. The nominee pool for the "Best International Artist" was drawn from the artists whose recordings make up the top ten highest selling international releases, based on album and related single sales during the eligibility period.
The ARIA Hall of Fame inducted Yothu Yindi on 29 November at the same ceremony as the ARIA Awards.