The object of musician’s monopoly is to move around the board gaining advantages and avoiding landing on career missteps and misfortune and final reaching the goal of being able to make money and have somewhere to live.
Those with no obvious apparent talent can roll the dice and get an image consultant credit to make them look so good that no talent is required to get media attention and start four squares along the board.
Roll the dice - move around the board. If you land on the space that says ‘rejection’ you will be required to go back to this square every 4th move to experience repeated rejection. You can get out of this by landing on one of the Manager squares but be aware one is a good Manager who will drive you and all your gear to gigs and make sure you get paid while the other Manager square will keep your earnings (points) rip you off and leave you with nothing to show for all your work meaning you are back at square One.
You may be lucky enough to land on a Grant allowing you to fund a recording of a song. With the additional points you also get musician friends who will help you record and turn your song into a shining gem of musical glory. This is expensive and so you sell you car and eat noodles for the next few months to fund a video. The song is played on social media, fame and money appears to be within reach.
You then progress a few squares to having a small fan base of loyal followers who download your songs. This brings lots of points for effort but earns only just enough to buy a coffee but not pay the rent because the media platforms and music labels have taken most of it even though you have done all the creative work.
This may mean foraging for any media advantage you can find. The ‘woe is me’ strategy is one that is often used to get attention. If you land on that square, you can use this to your advantage with the now classic move of releasing new music with a story about personal misfortune. The media will run with that rather than a piece about the actual music. This type of back story can backfire if punters see this as just another shallow exercise in woe is me rather than a genuine reason for the creative work. If the hardest thing you have ever had to face in life is mastering a F#7Dim chord then don’t even try the woe is me tactic.
Having now moved forward then backwards across the board and finally reached the last square that says ‘now what’ a player can either choose to be a barista instead and exit the music game or realise they are too clumsy and suck at making coffee so decide to continue the life of a working musician while working day job to pay the bills.




Lines on the walls / Lines through the trees
Lines down near the river / lines through so many dreams

Reach out and hold on / We want you to know
Reach out and hold on / we won’t let you go

Down in the valley / down from the hills
Down in the river/ where the levee spills

There’s a sign from the North/ Showing what reaches the East
points to the South leaving no doubt/of its a warning to all in the West

The people and all of the places/The houses, the farms and the fields
Lost in the deluge / and only the memory remains.

There are bridges for crossing / There are bridges to burn
There are bridges to nowhere / Building bridges to learn