Cirkut is on a historic awards roll. On Feb. 1, he won the Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical. On March 28, he won the Juno Award in his native Canada in the same category (since 2002, the award has been named in honor of Jack Richardson, the late Canadian producer who is probably best known in the U.S. for helming The Guess Who’s 1970 smash “American Woman.”)

Cirkut (born Henry Russell Walter) is just the second producer to win both awards in the same calendar year. The first was David Foster, who took both awards in 1985, when his big credit was the hit-laden Chicago 17. One other producer, Daniel Lanois, has won both awards, but he has yet to win both in the same year.

“It’s mind-blowing,” Cirkut told Billboard Canada’s Richard Trapunski of sharing awards history with Foster, who has been a force in pop music since 1973. “It’s amazing to be in the same sentence as someone like David Foster, who I look up to and respect so much.”

Cirkut also told Trapunski that the Juno win meant a lot to him, even though he has made it big internationally. “Being recognized by my Canadian peers means a lot. … I’m proud to be Canadian. I think I put a little bit of that into everything I do.”

The Grammys and Junos both first awarded producer of the year in 1975. Philly soul mastermind Thom Bell was the inaugural winner in the category at the Grammys. Randy Bachman, a founding member of both The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, was the first winner in the category at the Junos. (The Junos had previously presented related awards such as best produced single.)

Cirkut’s main credits in the past year were Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” and the Rosé/Bruno Mars collab “APT.,” both of which were Grammy-nominated for both record and song of the year, and Gaga’s album MAYHEM, which was Grammy-nominated for album of the year.

Cirkut received seven Grammy nominations and wound up winning two awards (producer of the year and best dance pop recording for “Abracadabra”). He told Billboard’s Lyndsey Havens late last year that he had no idea why he had such a big Grammy year. “If I knew the key, I would do it every year,” he said.

This year marked Cirkut’s first Grammy nomination for producer of the year, non-classical. It represented his second win for producer of the year at the Junos. He first won in 2014, in tandem with Robin Thicke.

Foster has won producer of the year, non-classical at the Grammys three times – a total topped only by Babyface, with four wins. Foster’s tally of three wins is matched by just three other producers – Quincy Jones, Pharrell Williams and Jack Antonoff.

Foster won producer of the year at the Grammys in 1985 (in tie with Lionel Richie & James Anthony Carmichael), 1992 and 1994. Impressively, he also scooped up awards for record of the year and album of the year in both 1992 and 1994, thanks to his work on Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable With Love and Whitney Houston’s The Bodyguard soundtrack, respectively. He also had a record of the year nod in 1985 for Chicago’s “Hard Habit to Break.” At the Junos, Foster repeated his 1985 win in 1986, when his credits included the St. Elmo’s Fire soundtrack. He was the first producer to win back-to-back awards in that category.

Lanois and Brian Eno won the Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical in 1993, in a tie with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Lanois and Eno were also nominated for album of the year that year for their work on U2’s Achtung Baby. Lanois has won producer of the year at the Junos a record five times – in 1987, 1989 (in tandem with Robbie Robertson), 2002, 2009 and 2011. Trailing Lanois on the Juno leaderboard for most producer of the year wins are Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock, with three wins each.

Cirkut, Foster and Lanois are the only Canadian producers to win the Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical. Cirkut, 39, was born in Ottawa, Ontario. Lanois, 74, was born in Hull, Quebec. Foster, 76, was born in Victoria, British Columbia.

Cirkut has won three Grammys and two Junos. Foster has won 16 Grammys and seven Junos. Lanois has won seven Grammys and eight Junos. Foster and Lanois have both been voted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (in 1998 and 2002, respectively), but neither has yet received a Trustees Award from the Recording Academy. Memo to the Recording Academy: What are you waiting for?

Post Script: No woman has ever won producer of the year at the Grammys, either on her own or as part of a team. Six women have won in the category at the Junos – k.d. lang, Nelly Furtado, Alanis Morissette, Joni Mitchell, Diana Krall and WondaGurl (Ebony Naomi Oshunrinde). lang and Furtado both won as part of a team; the other four women won on their own.

Older music catalog multiples, a key metric in valuing copyrights, have held steady for the past three years, even as the market for investing in music royalties continues to grow, according to a new report from Citrin Cooperman.

Citrin says its music and entertainment valuation services group priced 566 catalogs that were worth nearly $13 billion combined in 2025, up from 557 catalogs valued at a total of $10.7 billion in 2024. Last year saw some star-studded deals, from Taylor Swift buying her Big Machine masters, to Primary Wave’s acquisition of a stake in Notorious B.I.G.’s catalog, to BMG’s $250 million of Jason Aldean and other select artists’ works.

More valuable publishing catalogs and hip-hop catalogs changed hands last year, and Christian music catalogs began to get greater investor attention, according to Citrin’s findings.

“Citrin Cooperman has reached such a large volume of catalog reviews that we actually have a representative view of how the market is getting structured,” Barry Massarsky, partner and head of Citrin Cooperman’s music and entertainment valuation services practice.

We sat down with Massarsky and Jake DeVries, a partner in Citrin’s music and entertainment valuation services practice, to walk us through the highlights of their 2025 work.

In 2024, the average deal size for a catalog Citrin valued was around $19 million. In 2025, it rose to nearly $23 million. What accounts for the increase?

Jake DeVries: It speaks to there having been some significant, valuable catalogs and publishing specific ones that transacted last year.

In 2025, 41% of the total combined value of the catalogs you valued came from publishing rights only catalogs, compared to about 40% of the pie coming from catalogs that had a mix of publishing and masters rights. With more revenue coming from streaming — and master royalties benefitting more from that income stream — did more publishing rights trade hands last year because people are holding on to the masters rights?

DeVries: It’s likely just a function of [deal] availability. There were some outsized publishing catalogs that had transacted last year that elevated its overall share. We agree that the rise of streaming comprising a larger share of overall recorded music revenue does contribute to masters becoming more valuable. I’m not sure there was less activity among masters rights [because of that]. There was a healthy amount of activity.

Citrin found catalog multiples have basically held steady for three years for older music. Masters catalogs and catalogs of masters and publishing rights traded at more than a 17x multiple, and publishing right traded at around 15x multiples. However, the average multiple for younger masters catalogs was 13.7x, slightly lower than in 2024. Why is that?

DeVries: Multiples on younger vintage material are incredibly sensitive to how old or young that material is. Something that is three years old is very different than something that’s six and nine. Multiples tend to move up as material ages, since as the music matures, the cash flow that’s expected to decay stabilizes. [Catalog transactions of material] five years and younger pulled it down.

In 2025 compared to 2024, multiples for younger vintage masters actually declined year-over-year, and that goes back to hip-hop. We saw a lot of activity in transactions of younger vintage hip-hop catalogs. However, we saw an increase in multiples for the younger vintage publishing catalogs and younger vintage masters and publishing catalogs. That’s a function of that material being one year older.

You point out that there was a lot of hip-hop catalogs transacted last year, but you also found an uptick in rock catalogs trading. What explains that increase in activity?

DeVries: Pop, hip-hop and rock — those are just the broadest genres that have U.S. and ex-U.S. appeal. Those genres have a lot of streaming activity, but also a lot of activity on traditional sources, like radio. They line up well with broader, generalist-types of investor strategies. Overall, we saw more activity in those broad-based, better understood, types of genres.

Barry Massarsky: Those formats also tend to be well-represented by business managers and lawyers. They do tend to spur the demand for that music, as well as putting it out there for market attention. Opportunistic, better educated stakeholders.

Did you find any surprises in the trends and data from your 2025 catalog valuations?  

DeVries: It’s interesting how 2000s music performed as well as it did in the most recent year, against strong growth across all well-established release year cohorts. We found that that was an interesting development. It could just be the case that there was more virality in 2000s material than other than other [decades]. There’s been a lot of Goo Goo Dolls.

Another pair of key sponsors of London’s Wireless Festival have withdrawn their support over the booking of Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) to headline this summer’s event. Following food and beverage giant PepsiCo’s announcement that it was withdrawing its sponsorship of the event after serving as the festival’s main sponsor for a decade, Diageo, owner of such flagship alcohol brands as Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan, Guinness, Crown Royal, Smirnoff and Ketel One, has also dropped out.

Diageo confirmed the news to The Independent on Sunday evening (April 5), saying in a statement, “We have informed the organizers of our concerns and as it stands, Diageo will not sponsor the 2026 Wireless festival.”

In addition, Far Out magazine reported on Monday (April 6) that Rockstar Energy is the third sponsor to pull out of the event, citing an unnamed source saying that the energy drinks company was dropping out due to the West booking; Billboard has reached out to Rockstar Energy for confirmation on the report.

The Live Nation-affiliated London Festival, previously branded as “Pepsi MAX Presents Wireless,” is slated to take place in London’s Finsbury Park from July 10-12, with West headlining all three nights; West previously headlined the event in 2014. Ye has faced criticism in recent years over repeated antisemitic actions and statements, including releasing a song entitled “Heil Hitler,” professing a love for Nazis and reviled Third Reich leader Adolf Hitler, selling T-shirts featuring swastikas and the white nationalist phrase “White Lives Matter” among many other antisemitic incidents.

Earlier this year, West took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal apologizing to the Jewish and Black communities for his actions, in advance of the recent release of his Bully album. The Wireless booking also ran afoul of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who told The Guardian last week that he felt it was, “deeply concerning that Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism. Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted clearly and firmly wherever it appears. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe and secure.”

In addition, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a statement to Complex, “We are clear that the past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London’s values. This was a decision taken by the festival organizers and not one that City Hall is involved in.”

The blowback to Ye’s booking also drew condemnation from the U.K.’s Jewish Leadership Council, which said, “It is deeply irresponsible for Wireless festival to be headlining Kanye West. The UK Jewish community is facing record levels of antisemitism, including a terrorist attack in Manchester, the attack on ambulances in Golders Green and foiled plots which would have killed many more.”

The nation’s Campaign Against Antisemitism also weighed in, saying in a statement, “The Prime Minister is right to be deeply concerned that Wireless wants to headline someone whose anti-Jewish bigotry has gone as far as recording a track titled ‘Heil Hitler’ less than a year ago. He is not a bystander, though. The Government can ban anyone from entering the U.K. who is not a citizen and whose presence would ‘not be conducive to the public good’. Surely this is a clear case. Pepsi has done the right thing by dropping its sponsorship of the festival, but if management are adamant that they want to headline Kanye West, it is only the Government that can stop them.”

At press time it was not clear if the U.K. government would attempt to bar West from entering the country. To date, Wireless Festival organizers have yet publicly to comment on the blowback to the West booking.

West performed two sold-out concerts at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium over the weekend in support of Bully.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER unveiled the tracklist and concept photos for their upcoming eighth mini album, 7TH YEAR: A Moment of Stillness in the Thorns on Monday morning (April 6). With thorns playing a key role in the visual language of the group’s six-track mini LP, the photos were shared on the K-pop bands’ social feeds, which showed off different color-coded versions of the upcoming release in pink, purple, green and yellow.

The lead single, “Stick With You,” will be previewed with a video teaser on April 11, with both the mini-album and video for the track due out on April 13. “Stick With You” is described in a press release as an “electro pop track built around an addictive, high-impact  chorus, featuring a vintage 909 drum sound infused with elements of techno punk. Portraying the inability to let go of a partner who is preparing for a breakup, the track captures the desperation of holding onto the drifting relationship for ‘just one more day.’”

It continues, “that yearning parallels the group’s own determination to hold onto their dreams and continue moving forward. Rather than marking a conclusion, the song signals a renewed starting point as they enter their seventh year together.”

Album opener “Bed of Thorns” was inspired by the idiom, “you’ve made your bed, now lie in it,” with a message focused on “fully embracing the consequences of one’s choices.” It will be featured alongside third track, “Take Me to Nirvana” (feat. Vinida Weng), which “captures the rush of liberation” that follows letting go of uncertainty.

Other songs include “So What” “21st Century Romance” and “Dream of Mine,” which closes things out with a note of “anticipation, embracing tomorrow as the future remains unknown.”

The group — featuring members SOOBIN, YEONJUN, BEOMGYU, TAEHYUN, and HUENINGKAI — began teasing out the imagery and vibe of the EP last month with a concept trailer featuring a figure in a spiky all-black leather suit with spine-covered mask walking through a city in a lonely haze alongside the caption, “From where does anxiety arise, and how may this pain be stilled?” The striking visual was accompanied by photos of four concepts: “THORN,” “HUNGER,” “TENSION” AND “ANXIETY,” each representing different emotional states tied to the EP’s central metaphor.

“The monochrome visuals of the ‘THORN’ concept evoke a sense of rebirth, where the absence of color marks the threshold of a new beginning,” the release continues. “The ‘HUNGER’ concept explores the void left after a turbulent emotional storm, contrasting the members’ serene expressions in pajamas against a thorn-covered debris. In the ‘TENSION’ concept, the thorns in the wallpaper seem to loom over the members like an ominous shadow, capturing a moment of restless stillness, while ‘ANXIETY’ shows the group in a surreal forest, signifying a profound acceptance of the unknown and a quiet readiness for what lies ahead.”

7TH YEAR: A Moment of Stillness in the Thorns is the follow-up to last summer’s fourth full-length studio album, The Star Chapter: TOGETHER, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER will headline KCON LA 2026 on Aug. 16 with an hourlong solo set.

Check out the concept photos and album packages below.