BMI Honors The Jacksons, T-Pain and Many More at Urban Awards in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--
U.S. performing right organization BMI saluted the world's premier
r&b, rap and hip-hop songwriters, producers and publishers Thursday
night at its Urban Awards. BMI President & CEO Del Bryant and Vice
President, Writer/Publisher Relations, Atlanta Catherine Brewton
hosted the annual ceremony at the Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills.

The industry's hottest songwriter/artist T-Pain earned the coveted
Songwriter of the Year crown and shared the Producer of the Year
trophy with crossover king Jonathan "J.R." Rotem and hip-hop visionary
Kanye West. Song of the Year honors went to Beyonce's "Irreplaceable,"
co-written by Ne-Yo, Amund Bjoerklund (TONO) and Espen Lind (TONO),
while Universal Music Publishing Group secured the Publisher of the
Year title.

The night's festivities culminated with the presentation of the
prestigious BMI Icon Award to legends The Jacksons, whose achievements
were celebrated with a musical tribute. Throughout the ceremony, the
audience also enjoyed live performances of many of the award-winning
songs by music's biggest stars including Rick Ross, T-Pain, Lil'
Wayne, Ray J, LLOYD, Mario, JoJo, Keri Hilson and Yung Berg.

T-Pain, Jonathan "J.R." Rotem and Kanye West shared the Producer
of the Year win thanks to individually logging the most producer
credits on charting songs over the past year. The BMI Top Urban
Producers list also included DJ Montay, Mr. ColliPark, Polow Da Don,
Rodney Jerkins, Soulja Boy Tell'em and will.i.am.

Universal Music Publishing Group earned the BMI Urban Publisher of
the Year trophy by scoring the highest percentage of copyright
ownership in award songs. The publishing giant's 20 hits on the
most-performed list include "Throw Some D's" recorded by Rich Boy
featuring Polow Da Don; Song of the Year "Irreplaceable"; Flo Rida's
"Low" featuring T-Pain; "You" recorded by LLOYD featuring Lil' Wayne
and Ciara's "Promise."

In addition to the BMI performance awards, trade publication
Billboard recognized the BMI-affiliated writers whose songs reached
No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot Rap Tracks, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop
Airplay and Hot 100 charts during the past year.

Broadcast Music, Inc.(R) (BMI) is an American performing right
organization that represents more than 375,000 songwriters, composers
and music publishers in all genres of music and more than 6.5 million
works. BMI's latest financial results, $901 million for its 2008
fiscal year, are the highest performing right collections for any
copyright organization in the world. BMI has represented the most
popular and beloved music from around the world for over 65 years. The
U.S. corporation collects license fees from businesses that use music,
which it then distributes as royalties to the musical creators and
copyright owners it represents.

For a complete list of winners and photos, please visit
www.bmi.com.

BMI
Hanna Pantle, 310-289-6328
hpantle@bmi.com
Marlene Meraz, 310-289-6325
mmeraz@bmi.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008