Songwriter extraordinaire Diane Warren and operatic prima donna Anna Netrebko have been named the Laureates for the 2020 Polar Music Prize, an award founded in 1989 by Stig "Stikkan" Anderson, the manager and music publisher of ABBA. Traditionally, it is awarded to a person from the pop world and one from the classical or jazz genre. Previous winners of the Polar Music Prize include Sting, Elton John, Metallica, Ennio Morricone, Led Zeppelin, Paul Simon, Björk, Wayne Shorter, Patti Smith, Dizzy Gillespie...

PopMatters chose 29 black music documentaries for Black History Month 2020, and today rounds up the first 10. They had, so far, the Wu-Tang Clan documentary 'Of Mics and Men', Motown docu 'Hitsville', Beyonce's Coachella film 'Homecoming', Bette Davis' 'They Say I'm Different' etc. The rest is coming by the end of the month.

Witnessing police politely dealing with the crowd gathered for the Bob Marley 75 celebration in front of Marley museum in uptown Kingston (the house where he lived) offered a strange disconnect, the Guardian reports from Jamaica's capital on what would have been Marley's 75th birthday - back in the 1970s their presence outside the gates would have suggested a raid. This February, and every other month, for that fact, the museum is the Jamaican capital’s hottest tourist ticket, drawing more than 60,000 visitors a year. His message and mystique have mobilised a peaceful army of international followers, such as those holidaymakers venturing where few wealthy Kingstonians go. Changes would have happened without him, but Marley was there to guide them...

The Resistance Revival Chorus is a New York collective of women protest singers, founded in the wake of the 2017 Women’s March. Since then, they’ve backed Kesha during her chill-inducing Grammy performance, sung Spanish lullabies to detained migrant children outside a New York holding facility, and been shouted-out by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This spring, the female activist collective will play Bonnaroo and release their debut album.

She was at the Oscars last night to sing a cover of the Beatles’ 'Yesterday' during the In Memoriam segment. Billie Eilish sang the 1965 classic with her brother-collaborator Finneas on piano. The In Memoriam montage flashed across the screen behind them, showing people who died in the past year - actors Kirk Douglas, Doris Day, Peter Mayhew, filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker and basketball legend Kobe Bryant, among many others.

Guardian made a selection of best new music coming from Australia for February. 'Carry You' closes the final episode of Tim Minchin new series 'Upright', it's sang by Missy Higgins, a lovely ballad. Cable Ties play punk rock in 'Sandcastles', and, as the G suggests - "in rock music, if you’ve got a good riff, hook or chorus then repeat, repeat, repeat". Alex the Astronaut has a fun pop-rock song in 'I Think You’re Great'. (G)oldie Archie Roach remade some of his old stuff, giving 'Tell Me Why' more joyful atmosphere. Montaigne is a Eurovision contestant with 'Don't Break Me', who is expected to make it big soon, Sia style. Hayley Mary has a powerful pop song in 'Like A Woman Should'. #1 Dads have a funny band name and a somber, piano-driven song 'Freedom Fighter'. 'On My Side' is a chamber-folk song by singer-songwriter Lenka. A funny moment: punk-rockers The Chats sing about - venereal disease in 'The Clap'. Rockers Kingswood sound best ever on 'Bittersweet'.

Young Iceland composer Hildur Guðnadóttir won the Oscar last night in the Original score category, for her work on 'Joker' soundtrack, beating a quartet of men - Randy Newman, John Williams, Thomas Newman, and Alexandre Desplat. In the best original song category Elton John (music) and Bernie Taupin (lyrics) got the Oscar for their '(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again' from the biopic Rocketman.

For the fifth time in his career, Lil Wayne has reached the top of Billboard 200, the American album chart - his 13th album 'Funeral' debuts at No. 1 with 139,000 equivalent album units earned. Four more albums debut at the Top 10 - Russ’s 'Shake the Snow Globe' bows at No. 4 with 65,000 equivalent album units earned, Kesha snares her fourth top 10 album, as 'High Road' bows at No. 7 with 45,000 equivalent album units, Louis Tomlinson’s debut 'Walls' bows at No. 9 with 39,000 albums, and closing out the new top 10 on the Billboard 200 is Yo Gotti’s 'Untrapped', with 35,000 albums.

Keith Richards said he hasn’t touched a cigarette since last October and attributed the decision to his desire to remain active in music for as long as possible - “I think both Mick and I felt that on the last tour we were just getting going. [We]’ve got to continue this”. The Rolling Stone said it's harder than heroin - “Quitting heroin is like hell, but it’s a short hell. Cigarettes are just always there, and you’ve always done it". Now, Richards says his vices are limited to “a little wine with meals, and a Guinness or a beer or two”.

The manufacturing and storage facility for Apollo Masters, a Californian factory that supplies the lacquer used for making master discs, which are then used to create vinyl records - has burned down in a massive fire Friday morning, the Desert Sun reported. Apollo is, along with MDC in Japan, one of only two worldwide factories that produce the lacquers needed to create vinyls. Gil Tamazyan, founder and president of the California-based vinyl pressing plant Capsule Labs, said to Billboard that "unless something happens really quickly, there will soon be Vinylgeddon". Tamazyan estimates that Apollo supplies 80% of blank lacquer master discs globally.

The use of words related to negative emotions, in English-language popular songs at least, has increased by more than one third in the last 50 years, an analysis of lyrics of more than 150,000 songs has shown. Let’s assume an average of 300 words per song, every year there are 30,000 words in the lyrics of the top-100 hits. In 1965, around 450 of these words were associated with negative emotions, whereas in 2015 their number was above 700. Words associated with positive emotions decreased in the same time period - there were more than 1,750 positive-emotion words in the songs of 1965 and only around 1,150 in 2015. The tempo and the tonality of pop songs also changed - hits have become slower, and minor tonalities have become more frequent. No definitive explanation, just assumptions - less centralised record industry, societal changes...

Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien has released 'Shangri-La', a dance rock song from his debut solo album 'Earth', coming in April, signed EOB; Cabane is a Belgium musician and photographer releasing his solo debut album 'Grande Est La Maison', with Will Oldham singing on the pretty 'Take Me Home'; Horseneck includes two former Will Haven guitarists and Chelsea Wolfe's drummer, they play sludge/post-hardcore on 'Pen15'; Jon Hopkins released a piano and violin heavy 'Scene Suspended'; Le Couleur on 'Concorde' sang an ode to the airplane; Chester Bennington 1990s band Grey Daze remade their song 'Sickness' with Helmet frontman Page Hamilton lending his guitar; Noah Reid does US-rock on 'Honesty'; folk singer Aoife O'Donovan catches attention with the first line "The water is a glaze like loneliness at ease with itself" on her new song 'Night Fishing'.

Spotify has acquired The Ringer, a media company that includes culture website and massive podcast operation. This is the fourth podcast company acquisition Spotify has made in the last 12 months - last year it spent about $400 million to buy Gimlet Media, Anchor FM, and Parcast, announcing a year ago they intend to spend $500 million on its podcasting effort. Spotify hopes that adding a podcast business to its core music service will help them bring in new users, and keep existing users around longer. Music industry analysts say there are the first signs of the new company that Spotify is building – and they point to a very different and much bolder future.

Demos or unreleased songs from Beyoncé, Rihanna, SZA, Playboi Carti, and Lil Uzi Vert have all made their way on to Spotify or Apple Music in the last 15 months. The latest such example is 18-year-old trap-rapper Lil Mosey whose song 'Blueberry Faygo' was released to Spotify, unauthorized, under several fake names. It started with 'Blueberry Fweigo0 by 73bands, which debuted at Number Eight on the U.S. Viral 50 a few days after Christmas, and was taken down after one day. It was almost immediately replaced on the chart by Mikey.Otx’s 'Blueberry Faygo' - identical recording with new title and a new name. When that song was removed, it was followed by 'Blueberry Faygo' by Yung Anime, 'Blueberry Fejgo' by Khlaw, 'Blueberry Fergo' by Lil Monet, 'Burberry Faygo' by Lil Andrei, and 'Blueberry Fanta' by Shmackdat, all fake artists. One version of the song that was still on Spotify last week, attributed to an artist named Bennjp, had nearly 22 million streams, meaning it could have netted the uploader a lot of money.

The first episode of Justin Bieber's docuseries 'Seasons' has broken a record for YouTube with 32,65 million views in its first week. That beat out original comedy 'Liza On Demand' Season 2 debut (25.4 million) and the first episode of 'Cobra Kai' Season 2 (21 million). YouTube paid upwards of $20 million for the 10-part Bieber docuseries, making it YouTube’s most expensive content acquisition to date.

This week, Sunrise Records announced that it was buying FYE, America’s last remaining nationwide record and entertainment retail chain from Trans World. FYE currently has 206 stores in America, Sunrise owns 114 HMV record stores in the UK and 85 namesake Sunrise stores in Canada, bringing the total record store owned to 405. Between 2000 and 2010 nearly 4000 US record stores closed, leaving an estimated 1400, with most operating independently or in chains of less than 10 stores.

Lucy Boynton is to play British singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull in the forthcoming biopic 'Faithfull'. Boynton’s last film role was the Queen biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody', in which she played Freddie Mercury’s partner Mary Austin. 'Faithfull' will be directed by Ian Bonhôte (author of documentary 'McQueen') and follow the singer’s tumultuous life in the public eye, from teen pop stardom to being a homeless drug addict and her triumphant return.

Some great songs today: Moses Sumney takes a sweet spot somewhere between soul, folk and electro on 'Conveyor', latest song from his double debut album 'græ'; Bat for Lashes plays a stripped-down cover of 'The Boys Of Summer'; free jazz meets afro-pop on 'No Mas' by Irreversible Entanglements: just a nice dream-pop song 'The Absence of Bird' by the Swedes The Radio Dept; some original gangsta rap on 'The Ruler' by Drakeo; the Voidz continue to have fun + be cool + avoid getting ridiculous on two new songs - 'Russian Coney Island' and 'All the Same'; simple and fun video for '3 Tearz' by Danny Brown and Run the Jewels; Swedish dream-pop artist I Break Horses go ethereal on 'Death Engine'; Makaya McCraven’s dreamy reimagining of Gil Scott-Heron’s 'I’m New Here'; Basia Bulat made 'Already Forgiven' based on the sound of strong wind; James Elkington plays lush orch-pop on 'Nowhere Time'; the Colombian-Canadian singer Lido Pimienta goes latin-synth pop on 'Eso qeu tu haces'; KennyHoopla is halfway between Bloc Party and A-ha in his 'how will i rest in peace if i’m buried by a highway?//' video; Spanish quartet Melenas play disco shoegaze on '3 Segundos'; Indonesian solo sympho-black metal project Pure Wrath is seeking truth and peace at 'Children of the Homeland'. Plenty of songs, dedicate an hour to listen to all of it...

Melodic alarms playing from clocks in the morning could improve alertness levels, with harsh alarm tones linked to increased levels of morning grogginess. Lead author, RMIT doctoral researcher Stuart McFarlane, said morning grogginess, or sleep inertia, was a serious problem in our 24-hour world, adding - “you would assume that a startling ‘beep beep beep’ alarm would improve alertness, but our data revealed that melodic alarms may be the key element. This was unexpected". So, some nice music first thing in the morning!

Patti Smith is being awarded the 2020 PEN Literary Service Award, given to authors who write about “the human condition”. “She has testified to the transformative power of literature in her own life, and used her stardom to encourage reading and writing in the legions who revere her” - PEN President Jennifer Egan said in a statement, adding she "set an example of badass female artistry, coupled with deeply principled humanity". Previous recipients include Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, and Bob Woodward.

Hundreds of employers have been laid off last month by the world's biggest broadcast company, iHeartMedia. American conglomerate's chief executive Bob Pittman said the “employee dislocation” was “the unfortunate price we pay to modernize the company”. Laid-off employees blame the cuts on the company’s top executives, with some critics saying executives used the systems as scapegoats, hoping to distract from old-school failures, portray themselves as futuristic and avoid public outrage, according to the Washington Post. The company, which now uses software to schedule music, analyze research and mix songs, has called AI the muscle it needs to fend off rivals, recapture listeners and emerge from bankruptcy. iHeartMedia owns online iHeartRadio and more than 850 local stations across the United States.

Indie-pop band The Format staged a surprise reunion concert in Phoenix on Monday - about 150 people showed up to Hello Merch for a viewing party of The Format’s 2007 concert film 'Live at the Mayan', which just hit streaming platforms for the first time. The audience, however, got a bonus - announcement of The Format's first tour dates since going on hiatus back in 2008. What prompted the band to reunite had happened a year ago when Nate Ruess, as he himself explained - "was driving and I was listening on random, and 'Interventions' came on… And I was listening to it and I was like ‘I should probably skip this. And I listened and I thought, ‘Holy (expletive), this kicks ass. This is totally rad'”.

Toronto company WHUT!? Earplugs has begun putting earplug vending machines inside Toronto clubs. The machines are similar to a classic gumball machine, the earplugs are reusable and the case doubles as a storage container. In a study conducted last year, 47% of adults who listened to very loud music in their teens now face hearing issues.

Two Madonna fans, Andrew Panos and Antonio Velotta filed a lawsuit against the singer and concert promoters Live Nation, claiming the pop superstar kept them waiting up to three hours before taking the stage in New York last autumn. Both men allege they missed their drives home and this messed up their plans for the day after the gigs. The new lawsuit comes two months after a similar one was filed in Florida by more angry Madonna fans.

The concert film was made last year, it was directed by Michael Garber, and it is coming out this week on Amazon Prime Video. “Playing at the Apollo Theater is one of the greatest honors that a musician can have,” Washington said in a statement, adding - “When I walked down 125th Street from my hotel in Harlem and saw my name on the marquee I almost couldn’t believe it". To celebrate the announcement, Washington shared the 12-minute track 'The Bombshell’s Waltz', a previously-unheard piece from his self-released 2007 album, 'The Proclamation'.

The Russell Simmons accuser documentary 'On The Record' has been picked up by HBO Max as their first-ever festival acquisition. Directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering it tells the stories of Simmons' accusers, including former Def Jam executive Drew Dixon, as they decide to go public with their claims of sexual harassment and assault at the hands of the Def Jam music mogul. The audience at the Sundance premiere gave the doc multiple standing ovations, and it has a 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

"The apocalypse may be looming over us, like a drooling Homer over a box of donuts, but that’s no reason to lose all hope. Some hope, but not all hope" - Head Ned of the metal band Okilly Dokilly, inspired by The Simpsons character Ned Flanders, has said announcing their US tour and a new single. The rest of the band are - Bed Ned, Shred Ned, Dread Ned, Zed Ned. "We’re exci-diddly-ited to announce the ‘When the Comet Gets Here Tour’. So grab your green sweater and what remaining hope you have left and come rage with us Neds. End times are always better as Ned times” - Head Ned has said, as Consequence of Sound reports. They might be kidding, but they take their metal seriously, death-metal style, more or less.

Kanye West is bringing his Sunday Service to New York Yankee Stadium on May 2, as New York Post reports. West's performance will be part of an event held by televangelists Joel and Victoria Osteen, who announced the forthcoming event as “an evening of hope and inspiration to draw tens of thousands from across the country". Tickets go for $25.

Extra expenses and added paperwork relating to Visas, taxation and transporting equipment and merchandise, caused by the UK's exit from the EU, will make touring Europe “completely unviable” for new and mid-level British artists. Tens of thousands have already signed a petition by the Musicians’ Union calling for a new passport that will allow acts and crew to travel freely between EU member states, ridding them of new required permits.

Paramore's front-lady Hayley Williams has a solo debut album coming out in May, and she announced it with 'Simmer', a subtle exercise in how to draw the line between wrath and mercy; Scottish folk, Hindustani classical music and jazz make great companions on 'The North Carr' by James Yorkston, Suhail Yusuf Khan and Jon Thorne; U.S. Girls does some almost-religious rock at 'Overtime'; 'I Can’t Read 97' is an acoustic version of David Bowie's 1980s song by his short-lived hard-rock band Tin Machine; Porridge Radio reinvent the Pixies’ loud-quiet-loud trademark on 'Sweet'.