Artists are often gifted at expressing themselves, engaging an audience or giving interviews. Unfortunately, artists are often very poor communicators. They tend to under achieve in school, make poor financial decisions and generally struggle to fit into any kind of institution or comply with authority. Between us, I think we're all kind of proud of this as it makes us who we are.

However, pissing people off, anyone at all, is generally a bad idea as we are all emotional creatures that get defensive instinctively.

An element of diplomacy, not ass kissing, is required by all of us in order to build relationships, business or social. Why should artists be any different? I agree with Brian, there is nothing worse than an artist sending you a rude email complaining about his or her lack of attention from you.

David Ogilvy, the advertising mogul, said that to get the most out of him (and his firm) you must be a good client. He was not referring to the person who pays the most but the person who is open to criticism, embraces change and does as instructed for everybody's best interest.

Similarly, I presume that it's not the best musicians that have the strongest team behind them and working on their behalf but rather the musicians who have invested simple human interaction skills to develop mutual relationships, loyalty and trust, therefore achieving success and longevity by working with the best in the industry.

If you keep getting rejected by the same person, see if you can take them out for a beer. If you can't reach this person, contact his or her assistant and build on that relationship. If that doesn't work, start with the security guard at the door and work yourself up. This does and will work for anyone as long as it is sincere. No one will scrutinise you for having a political agenda - we all do.

I seem to have gone off a bit – sorry – I hope this is still relevant to the original thread. Woops!

Lior
www.wearelistening.org