FIRST OFF . . .

The former manager and lyricist of the disbanded Swedish pop group ABBA is donating $7 million to set up an international music award that he envisions as being comparable to the Nobel prizes. Stikkan Andersson said the money would be invested by a foundation and was likely to yield $700,000 annually. That would be divided in classical and popular music categories and awarded each year on May 18, starting in 1991 or 1992. Andersson, 58, and the board of his foundation, including representatives of Sweden’s Royal Academy of Music and Swedish composers, would select winners of the awards, to be called the Polar Music Prizes. International music institutions would be invited to nominate candidates. The money for the prize comes from Andersson’s sale, announced on Tuesday, of his music publishing firm Sweden Music AB and record company Polar Music International AB to Polygram for an undisclosed sum.