Next year’s 54th annual Grammy Awards is already in production. The Recording Academy and Grammy broadcasting network, CBS channel 2,

extended their contract through 2021 on Tuesday (June 21). So, what’s the date of music’s biggest night?

Check below to find out…

Next year’s Grammy Awards ceremony will once again take place Feb. 12, at The Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The contract with CBS includes the "Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! – Countdown To Music’s Biggest Night,” happening this Fall on Nov. 30. Also, a new series of two-hour Grammy-related specials are part of the deal; with details to be announced at a later date.

With recent big releases from Grammy darlings Adele, Lady GaGa, and Beyonce spawning critical and commercial success, and qualified 2010 projects from Kanye West, Rihanna, etc. it’ll be interesting to see how the 2012 Grammy nominations play out. What do you predict?

In an effort to continuously evolve its GRAMMY Awards process, The Recording Academy announced today that it has restructured the GRAMMY Categories across all genres and Fields, bringing the total number of Categories to be recognized at the 54th GRAMMY Awards in 2012 to 78 (from 109). All Fields remain the same. The announcement was made this morning at The Academy's headquarters by President/CEO Neil Portnow, Academy Board Chair Emeritus and five-time GRAMMY winner Jimmy Jam and Vice President of Awards Bill Freimuth. Additionally, a minimum of 40 distinct artist entries will be required in each Category (up from 25). Detailed information on these and other recent changes may be found at www.grammy.com/announcement.

"Every year, we diligently examine our Awards structure to develop an overall guiding vision and ensure that it remains a balanced and viable process," said Portnow. "After careful and extensive review and analysis of all Categories and Fields, it was objectively determined that our GRAMMY Categories be restructured to the continued competition and prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music. Our Board of Trustees continues to demonstrate its dedication to keeping The Recording Academy a pertinent and responsive organization in our dynamic music community."

For 53 years, The Recording Academy has recognized musical excellence with the GRAMMY Awards — the most prestigious and only peer-recognized award in music — and the awards have grown from 28 Categories in 1959 to awards in 109 Categories for the most recent 53rd GRAMMYs. This growth springs from a tradition of honoring specific genres and/or subgenres within a Field, and it has basically been approached one Category at a time without a current overall guiding vision and without consistency across the various genre Fields. In 2009 The Academy initiated a first-ever comprehensive evaluation of its Awards process, which led to a desire for change. A transformation of the entire Awards structure would ensure that all Fields would be treated with parity. Diligent research, careful analysis and thoughtful discussion of all Fields resulted in an overarching framework and a restructuring of Categories to 78, and ensures that every submission continues to have a home.