Matthew James Colwell, better known by his stage name 360, is an Australian rapper. He has released four studio albums: What You See Is What You Get (2008); Falling & Flying (2011), which peaked at No. 4 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum; Utopia (2014), and Vintage Modern (2017). 360's second album provided four charting singles, including "Boys like You", which peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified 4× platinum. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2012, he received six nominations and won the 'Breakthrough Artist – Release' award for Falling & Flying, while Styalz Fuego won the ARIA 'Producer of the Year' Artisan award for the same album.

The 26th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards 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.