Record Firms Hope Stunts Kick Sales : Marketing: Richard Marx’s five concerts in a day to launch his album is a return to ‘70s promotions.

Pop singer Richard Marx was scheduled to board a plane this morning in Baltimore to fly across the country.

Nothing unusual there; pop stars are frequent flyers nonpareil.

But before stepping on the MGM Grand jet, Marx was to perform a concert at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and by the time he gets home in the San Fernando Valley tonight he will have performed four more shows--at New York’s JFK, then in Cleveland, Chicago and finally Burbank.

It’s a stunt, though Marx and the record company officials who helped plan the event prefer to think of this rushed trip as just a creative way to launch Marx’s new album, “Rush Street.”

“What I like about this is it’s me playing songs from the album live,” Marx said from his home before heading eastward to start the trip. “It’s not a publicity stunt.”

Still, it’s an attention-getter--one of several high-profile album launches in recent months.

* Metallica rented New York’s Madison Square Garden and invited fans in for a preview listening party of its new album.

* Record stores opened at midnight to sell Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion” albums.

* The new Victory Music company launched itself and the new album by David Bowie’s Tin Machine with a lavish party/performance next to Los Angeles International Airport, echoing Hollywood Records’ inaugural party celebrating a new Queen album on the Queen Mary.

And now Capitol Records is putting Marx, making his debut with the label, in the air.

Parties and promotional gimmicks are standard fare for album launches, especially for major stars. But the current string of events marks a change from recent practice. To many in the industry, it recalls the ‘70s glory days of publicity stunts, when the Rolling Stones rented a flatbed truck and did a mobile concert in the streets of Manhattan, or when Alice Cooper had a spectacular “coming out” party at the Ambassador Hotel in 1972.

Why the escalation?

“I’ve never seen this many major releases at one time,” said Marx. “And we’re looking at the economy being bad, so there’s a sense that I’m competing with other artists for the public’s hard-earned money--though I don’t look at it that way.”

Marx said that his trip stemmed from his desire to avoid the standard promotional tour of talking to press and retail and radio representatives, and to instead emphasize his performance skills and bond with his fans.

Capitol took that thought and came up with this trip. In each of the five cities, Marx and his band will play for between 1,000 and 2,500 people, mostly winners of radio or record store contests.

Marx might not call it competition, but others definitely see it that way.

“There’s no question about it being a very competitive environment these days with the amount of superstar product and new record companies,” said Capitol vice president of marketing Jeremy Hammond, one of the people behind the Marx tour. “You have to focus the media and consumers on your artists.”

Danny Goldberg, a rock manager whose clients include Bonnie Raitt and Nirvana, points to the narrowing of pop radio playlists as another catalyst for these attention-getting stunts.

“That places a greater pressure on record companies, managers and artists to find an alternative way to reach the public,” he said. “It forces people to think in creative and untested terms of ways to sell music.”

The media is certainly focused on Marx. Capitol vice president of media and artist relations Larry Jenkins says that Marx is being accompanied on his flight by reporters and crews from nearly 20 major media outlets, including “Entertainment Tonight,” MTV and CNN.

“It’s looking like a rock ‘n’ roll Air Force One,” Jenkins said. As such, he said, the about $300,000 Capitol is spending on the event is well worth it, considering that one 30-second commercial on “Entertainment Tonight” would alone cost $110,000.

But will that sell records? The Queen and Tin Machine parties drew plenty of media attention, but the albums were still flops.

Record company publicists say anything that gets people talking is a success. Diana Baron, vice president for publicity of A&M; Records, participated in the Alice Cooper event in 1972 as Warner Bros. Records’ director of advertising.

“It’s the ephemeral buzz we all talk about creating,” she said. “Then it’s cost effective because the value of the money spent extends way beyond the three hours of the event. And buzz is such an important part of our business.”

What’s uncertain is whether this escalation of stuntsmanship is a long-term trend or just a response to the current economic climate and industry competitiveness.

“Unless people get results it will end quickly,” said Bob Merlis, Warner Bros. Records vice president of press and publicity. “This is a blip on the screen. We’ll see if it turns into a plateau or goes down. It depends on Christmas sales.”