The awards, which are held on February 17 in London, will be recorded by Channel 4 and backed by a whole week of programming, which will see highlights from the awards tour and London-based shows.
Previous NME awards sponsors have included Carling and Miller Genuine Draft.
Highlights from last year's event included performances from Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines -- all of whom have gone on to enjoy major chart success during 2004.
Paul Cornell, brand manager for ShockWaves at Procter & Gamble, said: "We're very excited about the NME sponsorship. We're always looking to associate ShockWaves with everything that is quintessentially cool and NME is spot on for our unisex target consumer."
News of the Wella deal comes as the NME revamps parts of its editorial with the introduction of a new reviews section, Tracks, and merging planner sections, Gig Guide and Agenda, to form a single weekly planner, Access All Areas.
Tracks aims to spotlight the best in new music, whatever its format or source. The revamped NME goes on sale on October 23.
Traditionally, IPC Media's weekly music magazine reviews singles the week before they hit the shops, but as part of the evolution of the magazine, Tracks will review the singles as soon as they are on the radio, television or available to download in the charts.
NME's two planner sections, Gig Guide and Agenda, have been unified to create one six-page guide, Access All Areas. The guide will cover essential TV, radio, films, books, videogames and other media.
Conor McNicholas, editor of NME, said: "These changes make sure we deliver the best in new music first every week. Most UK singles are now available for download as soon as they go to radio, sometimes six weeks in advance of being available as a CD single.
He added that Tracks is a completely new way of reviewing music that will take the NME forward, playing to its strengths and making it more addictive than ever for passionate young music fans.
In the last set of ABCs for the January to June 2004 period, NME posted a circulation of 70,014, down 3.5% on the previous period, down 3.4% year on year.
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