50 Cent, Graham Edwards, Nelly, Metallica and Jackson Browne among Top Honorees at 21St Annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards

Business Wire, May 18, 2004

"The Game of Love" earned songwriter/producer Rick Nowels the coveted Song of the Year title as a co-writer of the song with the most performance credits. Nowels has worked with some of the biggest-selling artists including Madonna, Des'ree, Belinda Carlisle, Dido, Celine Dion, Ronan Keating, New Radicals, Texas, k.d Lang, among many others.

"Publisher of the Year" honors were presented by ASCAP CEO John LoFrumento to EMI Music Publishing for their 16 winning songs: "All I Have," "Calling All Angels," "Can't Let You Go," "Crazy In Love," "Dilemma," "Don't Mess With My Man," "Drops Of Jupiter," "The Game Of Love," "Get Busy," "How You Gonna Act Like That," "I Know What You Want," "I Need A Girl (Part 2)," "Intuition," "Just Like A Pill," "Right Thurr," and "Rock Your Body." EMI Chairman/CEO Martin Bandier accepted the honor.

The 2004 ASCAP College Vanguard Award went to The Mars Volta. This award recognizes the impact of new and developing musical genres that help shape the future of American music and which gain early popularity on college radio. Past recipients of this award include Beck, Modest Mouse, The Strokes, Built to Spill and Jack Johnson.

Other songwriters receiving multiple-awards were John Mayer, Chink Santana, Train, Justin Timberlake, Avril Lavigne, Varick "Smitty" Smith, and Steven "Lenky" Marsden. For a complete list of winners, go to http://www.ascap.com.

2004 marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of ASCAP. As the world's largest Performing Rights Organization, ASCAP has over 180,000 composer, lyricist and music publisher members representing all genres of music. ASCAP is committed to protecting the rights of its members by licensing and collecting royalties for the public performance of their copyrighted works, and then distributing these fees to the Society's members based on performances. ASCAP's Board of Directors is made up solely of writers and publishers, elected by the membership every two years.