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Facet Records will now grant songwriters three percentage points (colloquially referred to as “points”) on every recording they release from the label’s share of the track, founder Justin Tranter tells Billboard. A songwriter with credits on hits like Imagine Dragons’ “Believer” and Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” among others, Tranter hopes to start a trend of labels sharing master income with songwriters and to bolster “the middle class of songwriters” that they feel has “been decimated” in recent years.
Home to emerging talent like Jake Wesley Rogers, Shawn Wasabi, Shea Diamond and YDE, with today’s announcement Facet Records is “the first company in the world to make this a standard practice,” says the company founder. While already revered hitmakers, such as Tranter, can occasionally negotiate for a half or single point on the master recording, working class songwriters typically never see revenue or ownership on the master side, “unless they also produced the song,” says Tranter.
The independent label’s team opted to offer three points specifically because it will align songwriters with the industry standard already granted to producers on the recorded music side. Historically, producers earn anywhere between one to five points on a master, given their role in the recording process. The three points will never be taken out of the artists’ share of the song at Facet Records and will be shared equally with all the songwriters on a track that are not also an artist or producer.
“I figured instead of complaining and begging for change, I could fight the good fight myself first and at least do what I can to control the situation,” says Tranter. “Songwriters are the backbone of the business, the embryo, but only a few writers are living a life like mine, most everyone is left to starve.”
Earning a livable wage as a working songwriter has become harder in recent years due to a convergence of factors. In general, the publishing side of music produces less royalties than the master recording side does, but now, during the streaming era, songwriters face additional challenges. In a time of physical media like CDs, cassettes and vinyl, songwriters across all of the album’s tracks would get paid evenly for sales of full albums, meaning that even if the songwriter wrote on a less popular track, they could still see decent income, even if their song did not make it to the radio, where many songwriters say is where the real money is. The emergence of single downloads, and now streaming, has created an increasing disparity between the income generated by radio singles and a regular album track.
While artists can bolster their income by looking to brand partnerships, touring and other revenue sources, songwriters are left to pay their bills with streaming, radio and sales alone. While the Copyright Royalty Board proceedings have led to some increases in U.S. streaming rates for songwriters in recent years, many feel it is not enough.
In 2021, Tranter — along with other hitmakers like Emily Warren, Ross Golan, Tayla Parx, Victoria Monét, Savan Kotecha and Joel Little — created an advocacy group called The Pact to voice some of the issues facing the modern songwriter. Among their grievances, The Pact noted that artists who do not contribute to writing the song now expect “particularly aggressive” cuts of the publishing, something most songwriters do not have the leverage to refuse.
There are also other, more universal difficulties songwriters today have to account for, including inflation and cost of living increases, the latter of which has particularly hurt Nashville songwriters.
When asked if Facet would adjust another area of its business to account for losing the three points of income, Tranter says though they expect the change to be an “accounting headache” they add, “if I’m lucky enough to have a hit song where we own or co-own the master, that’s going to be great. I don’t need to make this up. In my opinion, labels are being greedy, they’re just being f-cking greedy.”
Tranter hopes that by opting to announce the new standard publicly that “it will inspire other labels to follow.” “We especially need the major labels to join this if we want it to be a real thing, but if it inspires other smaller labels, who can make this change quickly and overnight like I did, and it gets majors to at least have the conversation, then that’s a step forward.”
Three years after initially teaming up, JYP Entertainment, Imperial and Republic Records are going all in on their strategic global partnership, with the three companies now set to collaborate across the entire JYP Entertainment roster, Billboard can reveal.
According to a press statement, the enhanced label partnership will include worldwide distribution of artists and catalogs, A&R, marketing and business development.
While the Republic/Imperial push already powers JYP groups TWICE, Stray Kids and ITZY, the expanded deal includes newer acts like girl group to watch NMIXX and rock band Xdinary Heroes. JYP Entertainment currently houses nearly a dozen acts, with many members of its groups also active as soloists under the label.
Billboard first broke the news in early 2020 of JYPE and Republic linking to grow TWICE’s presence in the United States. Since then, the K-pop girl group has not only seen massive growth, most recently earning their highest chart position and biggest sales week ever in the United States when Ready to Be debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Last year’s expansion, which brought boy band Stray Kids and female quintet ITZY into the fold, has resulted in two No. 1s on the Billboard 200 for the former and a top 10 album on the chart for the latter. And in July, TWICE member Nayeon became the first-ever K-pop soloist to enter the top 10 of the Billboard 200 with her debut solo album, IM NAYEON: The 1st Mini Album.
Prior to its Imperial/Republic partnership, JYP had a global digital and physical distribution deal with The Orchard that was struck in 2019.
“It has been a continuous journey of astonishing achievements through the strengthening of mutual trust as loyal partners,” said JYP Entertainment CEO Jimmy Jeong. “The expansion of this partnership between these leading music companies will sculpt the next vision of K-pop, opening up a new chapter together.”
Republic Records founder/CEO Monte Lipman added, “This partnership was born out of mutual respect and admiration. We recognize the incredible opportunity to be at the forefront of the next K-pop explosion. The potential is limitless.”
Next up for JYP, Republic and Imperial is the Friday (June 2) release of Stray Kids’ new full-length album, 5-Star, which could become the boy band’s third consecutive No. 1 on the Billboard 200. A teaser video of the group’s upcoming single, “S-Class,” has amassed about two million views on YouTube since its May 29 release.
Two Sony Music Nashville artists have announced their exits from the label, according to recent social media posts.
Rachel Wammack, who signed to the label in 2018 and released songs including “Enough” and “My Boyfriend Doesn’t Speak for Me Anymore,” revealed via a series of Instagram videos that she parted ways with the label late last year.
“I’m really thankful for the time that I had there, and all the opportunities that I got, It’s amazing really,” she said in one of the videos. “I’m really thankful for that time. Now I am an independent artist. There’s so much to unpack, but I’m very excited for this new chapter and all the blessings that really come with being an independent artist.”
Wammack also unveiled an unnamed new song about not giving up and staying committed to your dreams, with the singer saying, “It’s really cool to share a sound with y’all that I’ve wanted to share for a really long time.”
Meanwhile, Australian duo Seaforth, who signed with Sony Music Nashville’s RCA Nashville imprint in 2018 before shifting to the Arista Nashville imprint in 2021, relayed the news to fans this week that they have exited the label after the Arista Nashville imprint shuttered in March. During their time with Sony, Seaforth — comprised of Tom Jordan and Mitch Thompson — issued music including the single “Love That,” the Mitchell Tenpenny collaboration “Anything She Says” and the Jordan Davis collaboration “Good Beer.”
Jordan and Thompson shared the news of their departure on social media, saying, “As of today, we have amicably parted ways with Sony Nashville and are officially a fully independent artist. Sony was great to us, supported us when times were tough, and we owe a lot to them for what we have achieved thus far.”
The duo added, “Over time, it just honestly became a very emotional challenge for us to persevere through certain things behind the scenes. Although it ultimately took us a while to get here, anyone who knows us knows it’s the best decision for all parties involved, Sony included…we truly believe that a big change like this will inspire a whole new life for Seaforth, and it honestly already has.”
Seaforth also revealed that their upcoming independent single, “Get the Girl,” will release on June 16.
Sony Music Nashville did not respond to Billboard‘s request for comment by press time.
A Manhattan federal judge has denied a request by Adidas for an emergency order re-freezing $75 million held by Kanye West’s Yeezy brand, rejecting the sneaker company’s concerns that the disputed money might disappear.
Days after Judge Valerie E. Caproni lifted a months-long freeze on Yeezy’s accounts, she refused on Tuesday (May 30) to impose a temporary restraining order that would have immediately locked up the money again. Adidas argued that it faced “irreparable harm” without such an order as Yeezy was nearing insolvency, but the judge was unswayed.
“It is hereby ordered that … Adidas’s motion for a TRO is denied,” Judge Caproni wrote in her order, which was obtained by Billboard.
While still a loss for Adidas, Tuesday’s ruling only denied the emergency motion; Adidas can still win a more conventional order in the coming days reimposing an asset freeze on Yeezy. Both sides are due to file briefs on that request by Thursday.
Neither side immediately returned requests for comment.
Adidas, which operated a lucrative sneaker partnership with West for nearly a decade, was one of many companies to terminate its relationship with the embattled rapper (sometimes known as Ye) last fall in the wake of his antisemitic statements and other erratic behavior.
Shortly after the split, Adidas secretly filed a case in federal court to freeze $75 million in Yeezy assets. Adidas believes West’s company is contractually required to return the funds and has filed a private arbitration case to recover them. The company sought the court order to ensure that the money was not moved while those proceedings play out.
Newly-unsealed court records show that Judge Caproni quickly granted the asset freeze in November. But last week, after Yeezy’s attorneys challenged the order, she lifted it — ruling that Adidas had run afoul of procedural requirements and “deprived” Yeezy of a fair chance to fight back.
Just hours after that decision was issued, lawyers for Adidas filed their emergency request to re-freeze the assets. They argued that Yeezy currently holds $75 million “to which it has no legal right,” and warned that a court order was needed to maintain the status quo.
“Yeezy is likely to comingle the funds with an unknown balance of funds in its possession at other financial institutions, such that it would be more difficult if not impracticable to audit those accounts and determine which monies are owned by Adidas,” lawyers for Adidas wrote. “In addition, Ye faces a clear risk of insolvency, giving rise to a risk of irreparable harm.”
Tuesday’s ruling rejecting that motion came after a live hearing in Judge Caproni’s courtroom. According to a report by Bloomberg, the judge said during the hearing that while Adidas would likely win its arbitration case against Yeezy, it had not met the difficult legal requirements for a temporary restraining order. Among other things, the judge reportedly said that Adidas had offered only “tabloid speculation” about Yeezy’s risk of insolvency.
The newly-revealed litigation with Yeezy is just one piece of a messy breakup for Adidas. The split contributed to a loss of $655 million in sales for the last three months of 2022, helping drive the company to a quarterly net loss of 513 million euros ($540 million). Last month, CEO Bjorn Gulden said the company would begin selling $1.3 billion worth of unsold Yeezys, but would “donate money to the organizations that help us and were harmed by what Ye said.”
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: A messy legal battle between Adidas and Kanye West spills into the open; a YouTuber who defamed Cardi B declares bankruptcy to avoid a $4 million judgment; prosecutors call for a harsh sentence against Tory Lanez over the Megan Thee Stallion shooting; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Adidas v. Kanye
Thanks to newly-unsealed court records, the messy legal fallout from Kanye West’s high-profile split with Adidas is now coming into view.
Federal court records obtained by Billboard last week show that Adidas launched private arbitration proceedings last fall, shortly after the company terminated its long-standing partnership with West and his Yeezy brand in the wake of the rapper’s antisemitic statements. As part of that case, the company secretly sought – and won – an “attachment” order from a federal judge, freezing $75 million in Adidas money that’s allegedly sitting in Yeezy bank accounts.
Secretly? Yes, this case is a treasure trove for legal procedure nerds. The case was not only filed under seal and kept that way for months, but also on a so-called ex parte basis — meaning the judge issued the freeze without giving West or Yeezy a chance to make counter-arguments, saying there was a risk the rapper would have moved the money if given advanced notice.
But now, the case is spilling into the open. In a ruling earlier this month that unsealed the record, the judge cited the fact that Kanye himself had once mentioned the litigation on social media. And in a ruling Friday, that same judge overturned the ex parte freeze entirely, saying Adidas had failed to meet procedural requirements and had “deprived” Yeezy of a fair chance to fight back.
In the wake of that order, lawyers for Adidas are currently scrambling, seeking to have a new freeze imposed on the company. We’ll update you when we know more, so stay tuned.
Other top stories…
MORE KANYE PROBLEMS – Adidas isn’t the only former business partner in litigation with West. The Gap filed a case earlier in the week, alleging the rapper made unapproved changes to a Los Angeles retail location that resulted in an expensive lawsuit from the building’s owner.
B*TCH BETTER HAVE MY MONEY? – Eighteen months after Cardi B won a $4 million defamation verdict over salacious claims made by a YouTube host named Tasha K, the gossip blogger filed for bankruptcy, saying she has less than $60,000 in total assets to pay out.
FETTY WAP GETS SIX YEARS – The “Trap Queen” star was ordered to spend six years in federal prison, after pleading guilty last year to federal drug charges. His attorneys had asked for only a five-year sentence; prosecutors wanted as many as nine, citing music that they said had helped “glamorize the drug trade.”
GENIUS v. GOOGLE AT SCOTUS – The Department of Justice urged the U.S. Supreme Court to avoid a case alleging Google stole millions of song lyrics from the music database Genius, calling it a “poor vehicle” for a high court showdown.
TORY LANEZ SENTENCE LOOMS – Los Angeles prosecutors asked a judge to impose a harsh sentence against rapper Tory Lanez after he was convicted last year of shooting Megan Thee Stallion, arguing he behaved with “indifference for human life” at a moment when Megan was “particularly vulnerable.”
GOOGLE FACES $32M PATENT VERDICT – A federal jury ordered the tech giant to pay Sonos the huge sum for infringing one of its smart speaker patents, awarding the smaller company $2.30 for each of the more than 14 million Google devices that were sold incorporating the patented technology.
MIGOS ALLEGED KILLER INDICTED – A Texas grand jury formally issued a murder indictment against Patrick Xavier Clark, the man who was arrested and charged last year in the slaying of Migos rapper TakeOff.
Rod Stewart has backed out of a potential catalog sale to Hipgnosis after two years worth of negotiations with the company, a representative for the singer told Billboard.
Citing that he wanted to retain the ownership of his song catalog, Stewart said in a statement, “this catalog represents my life’s work. And it’s became abundantly clear after much time and due diligence that this was not the right company to manage my song catalog, career or legacy.”
Hipgnosis declined Billboard’s requests for comment, citing a non-disclosure agreement.
Further details about the potential catalog sale are not known, including whether he intended to sell his full catalog or just a smaller piece or royalty stream. Stewart’s team declined to comment further on the deal when asked for specifics.
Two music asset buyers independently noted to Billboard that Stewart’s public statement might be a “great way to drum up business for the catalog” and “to generate calls from potential suitors,” but another source noted it seems that a star of this magnitude would not need to speak out publicly in order to gain the attention of other buyers.
A two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Stewart is one of the most celebrated and recognizable singers in pop music history. Some of his greatest hits across his more than five-decade career include “Maggie May,” “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright),” “All for Love,” “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” “Baby Jane,” “Forever Young,” “One More Time,” and more. He first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer for Jeff Beck’s post-Yardbirds effort The Jeff Beck Group and later as frontman for Faces, alongside fellow Beck alum Ronnie Wood.
By 1971, the raspy-toned singer had become a household name with his own solo album Every Picture Tells A Story and its surprise radio hit “Maggie May” which went on to simultaneously top the charts in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. From there, through the 1970s and 1980s, Stewart remained one of the mainstays on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, continuing to earn hits as he experimented with daring elements of glam, disco, new wave, synth pop and more in his work.
His impact on music has continued into the 21st century, though mainly through covers. In the early 2000s, he found renewed success though a series of albums mining American pop standards and since then has released collections focusing on soul, rock classics and more, further cementing his legacy as one of music’s great vocalists.
Beyond landmark deals that have helped it amass a catalog of over 65,000 songs and records, Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the portion of the Merck Mercuriadis-founded company that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, has struggled since last summer, with its share price declining by 27% from a year ago to 81.85 pence. “I’m not going to pretend that the current share price is anything other than disappointing,” Mercuriadis told investors in December. SONG reported its 2022 revenues rose 7.5% over the year prior.
With few levers to pull to grow Hipgnosis Songs Fund — the fund has been fully invested, meaning it has no additional funds to acquire new rights, for more than a year — Mercuriadis has struck deals with companies like Timbaland’s Beatclub to open up Hipgnosis’s catalog to more synch and sample opportunities.
Hipgnosis’ Blackstone-backed fund does not disclose its financials. While heightened macroeconomic concerns and interest rates have increased investor scrutiny for big-ticket deals, Hipgnosis and Blackstone have so far acquired rights to Justin Bieber’s catalog for an estimated $200 million in the last year. Other recent deals for Hipgnosis in general include songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. and TMS, the British songwriting trio behind hits like “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi.
With reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall
Bitch better have my money?
Spoiler alert: She doesn’t.
Eighteen months after Cardi B won a $4 million defamation verdict over salacious claims made by a YouTube host named Tasha K, the gossip blogger has filed for bankruptcy – and she says she has less than $60,000 in total assets to pay out.
In a petition filed Thursday in Florida federal court, Tasha K (real name Latasha Kebe) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, claiming she is unable to pay more than $3.4 million in liabilities that she owes to a number of creditors.
At the top of that list? Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar (Cardi’s legal name), to whom Tasha says she owes $3,380,642 for a “judgment.” That’s because Cardi won a verdict in January 2022 that Tasha had legally defamed the superstar by making false claims about drug use, STDs and prostitution in her YouTube videos.
Shortly after Cardi B won that verdict, she tweeted “imma come for everything” along with the acronym BBHMM – “bitch better have my money.” But Thursday’s petition makes clear that the star is unlikely to see much of that money any time soon.
Tasha lists just $58,595 in total assets to her name, and the vast majority of that comes from a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado that’s tied as collateral to an unpaid auto loan. She listed only $11,750 in other property, including two Louis Vuitton purses, and just $95 in actual cash in her bank account. She counts the trademark to her “UnWineWithTashaK” YouTube channel as an asset, but says the value of the brand is “unknown.”
Attorneys for Cardi B, who have been legally pursuing the money for months, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Cardi sued Tasha in 2019, over what the rapper’s lawyers called a “malicious campaign” on social media and YouTube aimed at hurting Cardi’s reputation. The star’s attorneys said they had repeatedly tried – and failed – to get her to pull her videos down.
One Tasha video cited in the lawsuit includes a statement that Cardi had done sex acts “with beer bottles on f—ing stripper stages.” Others videos said the superstar had contracted herpes; that she had been a prostitute; that she had cheated on her husband; and that she had done hard drugs.
Following a trial in January, jurors sided decisively with Cardi B, holding Tasha liable for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They ordered her and her company to pay than $2.5 million in damages and another $1.3 million in legal fees incurred by Cardi. Tasha appealed the verdict last summer, but a federal appeals court easily rejected that request in March.
Tasha has vowed to keep fighting the case “all the way to the Supreme Court if need be,” even if it “takes years” to do so. But Thursday’s bankruptcy will impose an automatic pause on all litigation while the insolvency proceedings are carried out. And given her lack of resources, it seems unlikely that she will be able to afford the expense of continuing to seek to overturn the verdict.
Tasha’s company, Kebe Studios LLC, is solely on the hook for $500,000 of the judgment. It does not appear that the company itself has yet filed for bankruptcy, or if such proceedings will be handled as part of Tasha’s case.
Beyond her assets and liabilities, Thursdays’ bankruptcy filing includes other interesting information about Cardi’s nemesis. The blogger says that $10,000 in her “Google account” – a reference to YouTube’s parent company – was already garnished last year by the superstar’s attorneys. She also says that she and her husband earned a combined income from their work (both are listed as “content creators”) of $156,021 in 2021 and $134,861 in 2022, and that they make more than $30,000 per month currently.
An attorney for Tasha did not immediately return a request for comment.
James Vitalo‘s Gold Theory Artists has added managers Jack Babnew and Max Dubois, the company announced Tuesday (May 30).
Vitalo, who has helped steer the breakout success of Turnstile, founded the full-service boutique management company last year. Babnew, previously at TMWRK, will co-manage new client Beach Fossils alongside Vitalo, while Dubois, who launched his own management company in 2020, will bring Deafheaven and MSPAINT, co-managing both with Vitalo.
“When I set out to start Gold Theory, I knew I wanted to eventually expand beyond myself and my team to include other managers, but only those that felt aligned with the company’s ethos and possess the same all-or-nothing mentality,” says Vitalo in a statement. “I’ve seen both Max and Jack’s work over the years and deeply respect their knowledge of and passion for the industry, so it was a no-brainer to bring them into the fold when the stars aligned.”
The expansion comes at a great time for Vitalo, as Turnstile scored three Grammy nominations ahead of the 2023 ceremony. The punk band is currently on tour with Blink-182. Meanwhile, Gold Theory client Knocked Loose has taken on the festival circuit, with the hardcore band performing at Coachella and Bonnaroo this year. Gold Theory’s roster also includes Gatecreeper, Hana Vu, Harm’s Way, julie, Terror, SeeYouSpaceCowboy and Undeath.
Gold Theory’s growth signals a potential shift in the management space, with young managers opting to leave larger firms — or never sign with one to begin with — to either operate independently or work together at a company that operates independently.
“My whole life, I’ve been drawn to those who do things on their own terms — the risk-takers, the rule-breakers, the people who hear ‘you can’t do that’ and respond, ‘Watch me,’” says Babnew. “James and his roster at Gold Theory embody that spirit. As I grow my own career and define the terms for myself, I wouldn’t want to do it alongside anyone else.”
“Finding great people who happen to work with great artists is an incredibly difficult needle to thread,” adds Dubois. “I’ve always been excited about building something meaningful and impactful with people who push me to be the best version of myself. What James has done with the roster at Gold Theory has been undeniable and the people he’s brought in to drive the machine is exactly the combination I’m grateful to be a part of.”
Google has been ordered to pay Sonos $32.5 million for infringing one of its smart speaker patents, marking a significant development in a long-fought legal war between the two companies that’s spanned more than three years and multiple lawsuits.
Filed in a San Francisco court on Friday (May 26), the jury verdict awarded Sonos $2.30 for each of the more than 14 million Google devices that were sold incorporating the patented technology.
The jury found that Google had not infringed a second patent at issue in the case.
Sonos first sued Google in January 2020, claiming the tech giant had infringed multiple patents for its smart speaker technology after gaining access to it through a 2013 partnership under which Sonos integrated Google Play Music into its products. Just two years after that partnership was reached, Sonos alleged that Google then “flooded the market” with cheaper competing products (under the now-defunct Chromecast Audio line) that willfully infringed its patented multi-room technology. Sonos additionally claimed that Google had since expanded its use of Sonos technology in more than a dozen other products, including the Google Home, Nest and Pixel lines.
“We are deeply grateful for the jury’s time and diligence in upholding the validity of our patents and recognizing the value of Sonos’s invention of zone scenes,” said Sonos in a statement on the verdict. “This verdict re-affirms that Google is a serial infringer of our patent portfolio, as the International Trade Commission has already ruled with respect to five other Sonos patents. In all, we believe Google infringes more than 200 Sonos patents and today’s damages award, based on one important piece of our portfolio, demonstrates the exceptional value of our intellectual property. Our goal remains for Google to pay us a fair royalty for the Sonos inventions it has appropriated.”
In its own statement, a Google spokesperson said, “This is a narrow dispute about some very specific features that are not commonly used. Of the six patents Sonos originally asserted, only one was found to be infringed, and the rest were dismissed as invalid or not infringed. We have always developed technology independently and competed on the merit of our ideas. We are considering our next steps.”
The legal battle between the two tech companies has been protracted, with both sides going on the offensive at different points. In June 2020, Google filed suit against Sonos, alleging the smart speaker maker had actually infringed several of its own patents. Sonos subsequently filed two more lawsuits alleging that Google had infringed several additional patents it held.
Sonos filed one of those two cases with the U.S. International Trade Commission, which ruled in January 2022 that Google had infringed a total of five of Sonos’ audio technology patents and barred it from importing the infringing products from China. However, the commission also found that Google had successfully redesigned its products to avoid the Sonos patents and could continue selling those reworked versions in U.S. stores — an allowance Sonos had fought to prevent.
In August 2022, Google fired another volley with two additional lawsuits, claiming the smaller company used seven different patented Google technologies to instill the so-called “magic” in Sonos software.
Stock markets ended the week on a positive note as investors showed optimism believing that Congress can negotiate a deal to increase the nation’s debt limit and avoid a historic default. The S&P 500 increased 1.3% to $4,205.45, up 0.3% on the week, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 2.2% on Friday (May 26) to finish […]