Cooler Than Me Radio Push

A story about how Mike Posner's hit song "Cooler Than Me" made it to radio through an unconventional path.

"I'm in New York City, about to go to some meeting or studio, and my manager says we have to do a meeting with this radio promoter named E&C. His job is to get songs on the radio. Usually the label is supposed to do that, but we need to pay him to do it ourselves.

I said 'I don't want to go to that meeting, I want to go to the studio. I'm an artist.' He goes 'This is more important.' I said 'No it's not.' He says 'Yes it is.' I said 'Why?' He says 'Cooler Than Me is your first single. The label doesn't know it, but I know it.'

I said 'Cooler Than Me is old, it's been out 2 years and everybody has already heard it.' On the sidewalk in New York City, he looks me in the eye and goes 'Nobody has heard it.'

So I go to the meeting. We hire E&C, paid them 5 or 10 grand to get it on a few radio stations. No guarantee how much they'll play it. He gets it on a few stations and this thing starts catching on. People are calling into the stations saying they like the song. Patty Moreno in Sacramento and Shorty start playing the song 50 times a week. Then DJ Reflex in LA Power 106 plays the song.

Now the label calls and they go 'We told you Cooler Than Me is your first single - what a great idea!' That's what labels are great at - they're great at starting fires, but if you can start a fire, they've got a hell of a lot of gasoline. They then go into hyper mode, doing their things, getting it on all the other stations. That was how I got on the radio."