Composer Code

Steven Melin is a multi-talented video game composer out of Atlanta. I discovered his YouTube channel through poking around for some video game music theory resources. His video on the Zelda chord has a solid viewership and I could tell he had some serious composition and piano chops – and a serious love for classic game music.

I reached out and he was more than happy to sit down for an interview. He offered practical and inspiring advice on how to become a full-time musician and video game composer.

Steven has been making music all his life, first as a piano performance major, then as a composer and teacher. He’s also an entrepreneur, with his fingers square on the pulse of the music business.

In this interview you’ll learn:

Making money via iTunes purchases or digital streams is an uphill battle. Instead, it pays to be creative with how you monetize your art. Consider the following ways to succeed as a jack-of-all-trades freelancer in the music space.

Steven is a genuinely cool guy, so it came as no surprise to me that he got his first film scoring gig through networking.

When it comes to any freelancing activity, an in-person, face-to-face relationship will always get you further than cold-calling or cold-emailing endless prospects.

Many of us didn’t have the opportunity to make friends or network at a formal educational institution. For us, joining meetups or jam sessions in your area as a start. Do a search on Meetup.com for composition meetups in your area.

If you’re interested in composing music for video games, network with developers at local hack-a-thons. Those people are the ones that will sign your checks.

It’s essential to maintain a long-term vision for your music if you want to turn it into a career. Steven knew that reinvesting in more gear would provide a much higher return in the long run than just a few more dollars in his bank account.

He negotiated with the client, and they agreed to make his payment an iMac computer for composing as opposed to cash. He’s still using that trusty iMac today.

Often, the bootstrapping musician must pursue certain avenues of income that might not scale up to a full career income. These “quick cash” solutions are often out of necessity.

For me, I know that live gigging for weddings won’t scale enough to support my family. Steven reminded me that just one income stream likely wouldn’t be enough on its own.

Still, he’s pursued many of the “unscalable” income streams and “planted his flag” there. When he returned to try another path, say, a transition from online coaching to course-creation, he still gets requests for online Skype training that wouldn’t have come in had he not explored that avenue.

Steven said that when he first started freelancing, he said yes to every client that darkened his door and it almost ruined his life.

“People will respect you more when you’re selective,” he said. “Plus, you’re able to work the jobs you’re passionate about and carve your path, not someone else’s.”

Part of being an entrepreneur is practicing fiscal discipline. You have to wear both the CEO and the CFO hat, making sure that you’re held accountable for your finances.

Did you get a huge check for a gig this month? Steven says to be smart and think long-term. You’re not guaranteed work next month, and if you recklessly spend with dollar signs in your eyes, you’ll be kicking yourself during the next dry spell.

The point? Budgeting, both personally and professionally, is vital.

There are lots of benefits to becoming incorporated or an LLC (that I don’t have time to touch on here). But once you begin making a consistent income as a video game composer, take advantage of tax benefits afforded to you. Also, use a piece of software like Quickbooks to manage your business, well, like a business.

Steven has generously offered a 90% off discount of both of his courses to all readers of this post. To start learning all the skills you need to become a full-time video game composer, check out his course here. If you’d prefer a more generalized approach to scoring media of all kinds, check out his first course here.

“Carving your path” as a video game composer is an experience unique to each person. As a general rule, Steven recommends starting with passive income opportunities.

Passive income refers to something like a course, eBook, sample library, stock music library, or otherwise downloadable resource that is created once and then posted online for repeated purchase.

It’s a frontloaded investment of time and energy that (hopefully) provides a more substantial return in the future.

Below are some examples of passive income opportunities for the aspiring video game composer.

Steven had high praise for AudioJungle, one of the most robust stock music libraries on the internet.

It was from AudioJungle that he received his very first passive income check, which he still receives to this day. He unpacked some of the benefits of becoming an AudioJungle contributor.

When you become an exclusive creator for AudioJungle, they award you a higher cut of your sales. However, getting buried underneath the full-time content creators is a real risk.

For this reason, aim for at least 20 solid tracks. You’ll increase your chances even more if you’re consistently creating relevant music and if you understand the “formula.”

What do I mean by formula? Well, composing for stock music is much different than composing for the next great platformer on Steam.

Steven also mentioned things like eBooks as great passive income tools. eBooks are a great way to dip your foot in the passive income waters before diving in head-first.

eBooks cost nothing but a little time (you can produce one with free software on a Mac or PC). Depending on the scope and research required, you can make one in a matter of weeks.

They’re also a great way to test the needs of your audience and answer that all-too-important question: “Is this valuable enough to pay for?”

Paid webinars are also a viable business model, and have the added benefit of an interactive question & answer time with the audience.

When it comes to getting the most bang for your buck, however, Steven insisted that online courses are the way to go.

Steven was quick to cite education as the second biggest industry in the world right now, which should come as no surprise.

Think about how many people you’ve ever met that wish they could play piano like Billy Joel, or sing like Adele, or play guitar like Tommy Emmanuel.

Think about all the YouTube tutorials (hundreds of thousands!) that promise to teach you how to compose, sing, produce, play, arrange, and everything in between.

There are so many disciplines within music that people are hungry to learn and hungry to buy. Steven saw a massive gap in the market, namely in the space of composing music for video games, TV, and film, and jumped on it.

His most recent course hadn’t yet been released at the time of our interview but is now available on Udemy. Based on how emphatic our conversation was, I could tell course creation was a turning point in his career.

Courses take 3-5 months to create, according to Steven, but the payoff is immense. He recommends an automatic hosting and curation platform like Udemy. For a small fee, they do all the technical heavy lifting, so you’re freed up to do what you do best – create quality content.

Not only has the course dramatically improved his ability to be a self-sustaining video game composer, but it’s also been a tool for gathering valuable feedback about what to make next.

Stumped on what subject matter to cover in your educational resources? If one or two people ask you a question, answer it. If more than five people ask you the same question – make a course!

“Much of my audience told me they needed something more basic,” Steven mentioned. “So now I have a roadmap for my next course. The market is screaming for this and more-than-willing to pay for it.”

While we geeked out on courses and passive income, I got increasingly more excited. Until my inner skeptic told me, “You can’t make a course, you need a huge audience; you need to test the market, you need tons of fancy gear, blah, blah, blah…” There I am making the perfect the enemy of the good again.

When I asked Steven how big his audience was (particularly his email list) when he launched his course, I was stunned at his response.

“Less than a hundred.”

What?! Most marketers I know argue the audience-first approach. You build an audience before launching a product to gather intel and market feedback.

Steven’s success seems to fly in the face of that maxim. He launched a product into the market (of his own admission, out of necessity) and the feedback – and passive income – rolled in all the same.

I often wonder if our mantra of “I don’t have a course yet, I’m waiting to build my audience,” is a fancy form of procrastination.

Either way, Steven did it and the numbers don’t lie. He mentioned that the day before our interview he acquired 22 new students in his course.

“It’s been a wild ride,” he said with a smile.

You don’t need to wait for a massive email list, subscriber base or Facebook following. Just make something. 

Something I struggle with is imposter syndrome, or this idea that you’re one project or composition away from being exposed as a fraud and laughed out of your industry. Many CEOs and actors struggle with this. Steven’s suggestion? Be honest about where you’re at in your own musical journey.

He astutely pointed out that YouTube vloggers and creators have made handsome livings through authenticity and honesty, not glitz or polished perfection.

Many audiences can see through egos and snobbery. Genuineness is far more attractive than being technically “right” all the time.

Steven mentioned that every teacher, composer, and content-creator has a different approach and spin on teaching or making art. It’s these unique, personable qualities that attract particular audiences.

He urged me, and those listening, to fight the urge to throw in the towel just because there are more educated and experienced teachers out there. Indeed, there will always be better people and worse people in every discipline.

I’ve often heard it said that content creators fall into two categories: Gandalfs and Frodos. Gandalfs are wizened, experienced gurus who’ve walked the path and have the authority and evidence to guide others as an expert. These would be people like YouTuber Rick Beato, who’s graduated from Berklee and has been producing and teaching music longer than I’ve been alive.

Frodos, however, are more vulnerable, perhaps more down-to-earth voices that freely admit they haven’t seen the end of the road. They don’t claim to know everything, but they share everything they learn and invite their followers to go along the journey with them. That’s where I’m at.

What’s important is that you don’t let your inner naysayer deter you from adding value and giving your perspective. Even if we say something technically “wrong,” I’ve found most musical communities to be very gracious.

If they correct an error, most times it’s with gentleness and understanding. Besides, we all know that we’re our own worst critic.

Marketing is often a dirty word for creative people, but good work won’t get recognized in today’s noisy world without a little technical elbow grease.

Steven schedules a few hours every week for marketing and managing his online presence – time that could be spent making music – because he recognizes how crucial it is to grow his income.

Steven mentioned the power of Udemy’s search engine and integration with Google as a significant factor contributing to his course’s success.

He suggests spending the time to optimize all online properties for search. Make sure to tag, title, and thumbnail your YouTube videos correctly.

Optimize your website’s content with search-friendly keywords and meta descriptions. The goal is to rank for multiple search engines so whether your audience is on YouTube or Google, you can make your presence known.

An excellent resource for search optimization is the Yoast SEO plugin (free) for WordPress. If you’ve got a WordPress-based website, this plugin is a must-have as it grades the efficacy of your content and even gives you specific suggestions on how to rank higher.

As far as YouTube goes, I recommend TubeBuddy (free version or paid version), which analyzes your videos and content tags similarly, presenting recommendations and suggested optimizations.

Steven was speaking my language when he started talking about funnels. In the world of marketing and business, almost everything can be represented by a funnel.

The purpose of a funnel is to cast a wide net of interest via various online or offline “arms.” These might include social media, a performance, YouTube videos, or a popular music blog.

Managing the funnel means taking these disparate audiences and pushing or “funneling” them down to one centralized location – usually a website. From here, many marketers suggest capturing audience information via an email list so you can market to them later. 

Once they’re on the website and in your email database, the next phase of funnel optimization is to push them to a shopping cart, streaming site, or a particular place where they can make a purchase.

A good funnel ensures the path to a transaction is clear and unobscured. Remember, the end game is not to have a massive Facebook following, but to convert those followers into happy, paying customers.

In addition to managing your funnel and making sure it all leads to your site, Steven mentioned that it should feature everything you do in an organized, systemic way.

“I can’t tell you how many times people have come to my website looking to buy one thing and then left buying something completely different,” he noted.

If you’re a teacher, composer, coach, YouTuber, performer, or producer, make sure you have a unified place where anybody can go and take advantage of your services in any of these disciplines.

It’s often not raw talent or skill that sets apart the successful entrepreneurs from the failed ones, but a consistent, unshakable drive to work hard.

Following the process and submitting to the grind day in and day out will often yield the fruit of success. These are some tips Steven shared on how he stays afloat as a one-man entrepreneur.

It’s a challenging but straightforward appeal to us young, creative types who’d instead learn everything from YouTube or podcasts.

There is a more profound wisdom gleaned from concentrated periods of reading that’s inaccessible from the internet. Here are a few books that Steven recommends for video game composers looking to turn their craft into cash:

Writer’s block is very real thing according to Steven. It’s easy to get discouraged and procrastinate when you feel stuck. Steven recommends channeling your writer’s block into doing something else that’s equally creative and productive.

Next time you feel stuck, try this:

These can get the creative juices flowing again. You’ll find yourself refreshed as you return to your primary task.

Better yet, Steven likes to write stock music for libraries like AudioJungle when he’s plagued by writer’s block, increasing his chances of making more passive income while recharging his creative tank.

Steven uses Evernote as his digital brain for note-taking, deadlines, and scheduling, and a calendar app for various due dates.

Though he hated calendars and schedules growing up, he now has every hour of every day planned so he can hit the ground running every morning.

When I asked Steven how he’d recommend someone going about something as daunting as building an online course, he gave me a sample roadmap:

“I would set a due date. Say, six months from now. I’d scale back down and ask myself, how many hours per day can I work on this? Then, once I know I can work an hour per day, or even an hour every other day, that helps me understand the scope of how big the course can be.”

After that, it’s as simple as chipping away at the next task for an hour a day and releasing the course (no matter what!) on that due date.

What I  appreciated most about this method is Steven setting the due date first. Something I (and many others) struggle with is a phenomenon called “scope creep.”

It’s common in the tech industry. It refers to how the scope of a project can slowly grow during production. As we try to improve the product before its even released, the project’s scope “creeps” to the point of overwhelming perfectionism.

The original plan and the new “perfect” plan are unrecognizable.

That’s where a lot of people (myself included) quit. Setting a due date and constraining yourself to it frees you from the trappings of scope creep. It forces you to ship, come hell or high water.

When I asked Steven for closing thoughts, that’s what he said.

Really? There’s no silver bullet, no secret gene possessed by an elect few?

Afterwards, I thought of how few people are working toward their goals (me included). They’re planning, pontificating, dreaming… but they’re not working. Well, I suppose interviewing Steven and writing out this blog post is a start.

This advice was simple. But if it’s so simple, why aren’t we all doing it? What are we waiting for?

If you’d like to see more of Steven’s work or hire him, check out his site here. His YouTube channel has some really helpful tutorials and great piano renditions of classic video game songs. And of course, if you’d like to learn to compose music for video games, TV, and film, check out his Udemy course here.

The Super Marcato Bros are Karl and Will Brueggemann. They are prolific video game music composers, podcasters, performers, enthusiasts, and all-around nice guys.

Their Bandcamp boasts a catalog of over 30(!) albums, each demonstrating reverence for the formative melodies of their youth.

The crown jewel of their creative careers seems to be their long-standing podcast, The Super Marcato Bros Video Game Music Podcast, in which they critique and explore video game music of all stripes.

I sat down with them for a 30-minute interview (which turned into an hour-and-a-half interview) as they graciously shared insights and experiences on composing great music. We also got geeky and talked about some of their favorite tools.

Here are the tips (click to jump there):

The Marcato Bros have the uncanny ability to deconstruct a particular song, figure out how it works, and compose original music in the same spirit.

This idea is behind albums like Hello World, which plays like a reverent tribute to Koji Kondo’s Super Mario World soundtrack.

<a href="http://supermarcatobros.bandcamp.com/album/hello-world-adventures-in-mushroomland">Hello World: Adventures in Mushroomland by Super Marcato Bros.</a>

More than just a hat-tip to the classic sounds of SNES hardware, Hello World feels like it belongs in the same universe as Super Mario World and could easily be mistaken for the work of Kondo-san.

Karl and Will begin to deconstruct their favorite songs by sitting down at the piano figuring out the parts by ear. There is usually no notation here, just listening over and over and studying the piece until you can identify the voices.

All you need is a piano (or DAW) and YouTube to do this. 8-Bit Music Theory does a live transcription of a Mario Kart tune here.

He utilizes YouTube’s rewind/slow-down function to help him figure out the parts. Check it out to see some great transcription in action.

Try this helpful workflow:

Listen to Will talk about the power of credits music and its influence on the Bros’ composition style from an early age.

Another thing Will mentioned is that most of the sheet music online for these songs is incorrect, not necessarily because of incorrect notes, but incorrect voicings.

Koji Kondo often used spread voicings (as opposed to typical triads) in order to fully realize the tonal colors of a particular chord.

A triad played on NES hardware sounds pretty muddy and unclear. When you move the fifth down an octave and put the root on top, for example, it makes for a totally different (and often more interesting) sound.

Homework: pick one of your favorite classic video game songs and find it on Game Music Appreciation. Isolate the channels and figure them out on piano (or your DAW). Note the things that sound good and try to figure out the theory behind them. It’ll be a challenge, but you’ll learn a ton.

Listen to Will talk about the importance of strategic voicings in the Super Mario Bros. Overworld Theme:

Limitations are often a blessing more than a curse, especially when it comes to strengthening foundational composition muscles. They force you to explore new ways to express tonal qualities.

The best examples of great creativity under constraints are the 80’s-era NES composers. For instance, when you only have three tonal channels (as is the case for the NES), how do you play a four-note 7th chord?

Well, unless you arpeggiate it, you physically can’t. So does that mean jazz is out on the NES? No way.

You can still express the chord by highlighting the essential tones, namely the root, the third (which defines the chord as major or minor) and the minor 7th (which gives the chord its jazzy feel), leaving out the 5th.

This is how the great composers of old thought through limitations, and the music didn’t suffer an ounce because of it.

What sticks with us (i.e., what we sing in the shower) is not usually the rhythm or the bass groove of a piece, but the melody.

That’s why it’s important to make sure your melody sounds solid on a piano, guitar, or your voice before tweaking sound design parameters and worrying about implementation.

Plus, sound design is a completely separate musical discipline that uses a different part of the composer’s mind. Switching back and forth between arranging and tweaking sounds is inefficient and taxing.

We all have certain musical habits and licks that we naturally gravitate towards. Maybe it’s mindlessly playing block chords on a piano in the key of C, or never branching out into barre chords on the guitar.

Staying within the bounds of your typical writing style means you’ll write the same kind of music every time, and it’ll quickly get stale and predictable.

If you usually play in the key of C on piano, try branching out to a “darker” key like Ab or F#. If you like to strum open “cowboy” chords on guitar, try some interesting voicings higher up the neck.

It will require you to think more, but the resulting compositions will almost always be unique.

Michael New, a music theorist and YouTuber, has a great video on why C Major is bad. It’s easy to rely on playing just the white keys as a crutch.

Homework: try composing your next song in an “awkward” key (one that’s outside of your comfort zone). It will force you to think harder about chord and note choices and likely produce some unique results.

Video game music isn’t a genre as much as a constellation of multiple genres.

Within video game music, you’ll find funk, EDM, acoustic folk, latin jazz, and epic orchestral pieces (as well as endless combinations of these).

This presents a unique challenge to the video game composer, who is often expected to have a firm grasp on this wide swath of styles and sounds.

Homework: Will noticed a lot of Japanese composers (namely Joe Hisaishi) use parallel fourths for scary themes. Listen for the creepy parallel fourths in Koji Kondo’s Ganondorf Theme from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and try implementing it in your next tune.

If you usually listen to rock or reggae, listen to a ton of jazz and really analyze why and how it works, then try your best to replicate it.

Watch this clip of Karl talking about how important it is to critically listen to other genres:

Will, in a passing comment, mentioned that as you progress in your music theory knowledge, you’ll start discovering “spicy” techniques that you can use to take your compositions to the next level.

I knew exactly what he meant. When you start learning theory and composing, you’re naturally prone to stay within the bounds of the diatonic scale (notes that all fit within a major or minor scale).

The most interesting moments in music are usually a result of branching out of diatonicism with one or more of these zesty techniques:

Homework: choose one (and only one, don’t get overwhelmed!) of these techniques that look interesting, do some research on how it works, and implement it into your next arrangement.

While it’s important to not let limitations stop you, the other side of the coin is to always be expanding your compositional repertoire. Some examples of tools are:

“We’re beneficiaries of the tools we use,” Will noted. New tools in our toolbox can inspire us in new ways.

The most important thing the Bros reiterated, and the overarching motif of our conversation, was to avoid “waiting” to compose music until you have the perfect gear.

Karl, Will, and myself are all heavily influenced by the Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog series. A staple of Sonic music is the mosaic of independent musical ideas that intertwine seamlessly.

It’s tough to tell where one part begins and another ends.

A perfect execution of this is Angel Island Zone 1 from Sonic 3. Isolate the channels to hear the true brilliance of each part and how they contribute to the whole.

“So how do you implement all of these parts without it sounding like mush?” Karl asks.

Well, the answer is both un-sexy and encouraging – trial-and-error.

Un-sexy because it seems clumsy to try parts over and over until you find one that works. It’s ultimately hopeful because it reassures us that we’re not stupid when our first attempts fail miserably.

Listen to Karl talk about the power of trial-and-error, and the importance of remembering what works and what doesn’t when composing:

Context is crucial here. As you explore genres like jazz, you’ll quickly realize traditional theory rules are all bent or broken.

For example, an Eb is not technically in the key of C, and playing it over a C chord might sound “wrong.” It certainly sounds dissonant.

However, if you take a page from Koji Kondo and use some chromaticism, you can start a melody on Eb and resolve it to E over a C chord.

The context turns it into a playful chromatic flourish.

Karl has strong opinions on the pitfalls of chasing the latest piece of gear.

His philosophy is that you should be forced to work with a a few pieces of basic gear until you naturally outgrow them. “You have to earn it.”

Karl started with Cakewalk and a humble MIDI controller, manually inputting general MIDI sounds. Marty (the third Marcato bro) started with a crappy acoustic guitar and a four-track recorder.

Listen to Karl talk about the biggest error beginners fall prey to:

If you compose in the same way every time, you’ll fall into the same traps.

The Bros are partial to composing on piano, but have also been known to sing their ideas (even beatbox them) into the Voice Memos app and find the supporting chords later (I’m a huge fan of this method as well).

The ideas you compose on guitar, banjo, melodica, mandolin, or electric guitar will all be different. This is why it pays to be constantly expanding your toolbox.

I was once in a folk/rock band and came up with a one of my favorite songs by playing the opening riffs on a ukulele.

I never would’ve achieved that sound or feel without the unique qualities of that particular instrument.

Where the Bros (respectfully) disagreed was on tracking notes straight into the computer.

Karl preferred writing straight into the DAW for shreddy MIDI riffs, but Will tries to get away from that, sticking to real-life instruments as the catalysts of his inspiration.

I think they’d both agree that each has their place, and it’s important to try to each to find out what works for the music you want to create.

Why do we often love live albums more than studio recorded ones? The audio quality is nowhere near as polished, and the performance is often replete with small errors.

On paper, live albums should always be inferior to studio recordings, but we still come back to them (I’m thinking of the Avett Brothers’ Live, Volume 3 and Paul Simon Live in NYC)

That’s because of this simple principle: performance always trumps gear. Perfect the performance and the quality of gear won’t make a difference.

Many new composers make the mistake of trying to prospect their work to fellow musicians. Even if you’re revered as a video game music composition god or goddess among your peers, they aren’t going to be ones that need your services.

The ones that hire you will be the developers, so the Bros recommend networking with indie devs whenever possible.

In my experience, some great way to meet indie developers are:

Mindlessly spamming developers is not a viable strategy for getting composition work. Karl mentioned that soft skills are almost as relevant as musical proficiency when it comes to getting work.

Want to set yourself apart in the game development industry? Be a genuinely likable, helpful person, not viewing people as mere tools to use to reach your goals.

Be communicative, courteous, professional, and meet your deadlines. You’ll go far in the video game music world (or any industry).

Another page to take from the Sonic series is how the composers focused less on the character of Sonic and instead on the environment.

It’s an interesting change of mindset that one also finds present in series like Mario Kart. Listen to Frappe Snowland, one of my personal favorites in the whole series:

From a philosophical standpoint, Will reminded me that it’s important that video game music composers support the story of the game. Sometimes, a catchy melody is what the developer wants, and other times it’s ambient pads, dissonant choral voices, or a looped beat.

Whatever it is, the modus operandi of the video game composer (especially when payment is involved) should be to support, and not distract from, the game’s story.

Karl and Will sung the praises of inexpensive DAWs and free VSTs. Why? They eliminate excuses.

Limited resources also force you to learn more tricks when it comes to EQ, compression, and sound design.

Here are the Super Marcato Bros tools of the trade for composing video game music:

Will is about to wrap up a composition degree. He expressed disdain for the movement of professors and students obsessed with eschewing music just because of its mainstream appeal.

“They want music to be something that’s only for people who go to school,” He lamented. “It’s infuriating.”

What made The Beatles and Paul Simon popular is that they figured out how to make something that everybody likes.

It’s truly difficult to make something that can be analyzed by music theorists but also enjoyed by the masses.

Don’t be ashamed to draw influence from popular art, Karl concluded. It’s popular for a reason.

The Brueggemann Bros are some of the most prolific creative people I know. The two have over 30 albums and nearly 300 podcast episodes under their belts with no signs of stopping.

On top of this, Karl is in a funk band and Will is in college.

Their secret to productivity? A burden for finishing. They’re both wired to finish what they start, which is another big weakness I’ve seen in the creative field (and in myself).

It’s exciting to start new projects, but drudging through the “messy middle” is often a grind.

The Bros have consistently come out the other side and know that the rewards of focusing on one goal to completion are more than worth it.

In conclusion, the most important thing, and in my estimation, a large predictor of the success of the Marcato Bros, is to compose or make music in some way every single day.

We, as humans, make time for what we truly care about. If composing is important to us, we’re not going to let gear, hardware, time, or any other limitations stop us from making music.

I highly recommend checking out the Marcato Bros’ music and podcast. If I’m honest, it’s the only podcast I’m listening to right now.

Check out their website here. You’ll find all their music and links to their podcast.

Like them on Twitter, and on Facebook.

If you like what they do, support them on Patreon.

Here’s the recorded interview in its entirety if you’d like to watch it: