As the rock band Better Than Ezra prepares to release its new album, "Before the Robots," next week, the group's record company is promoting its music on "Hot Adult Contemporary" radio stations, on VH1 -- and, soon, aboard 38 Boeing 757s operated by Song, the low-cost division of Delta Air Lines.

Better Than Ezra released its last and only big hit ("Good") in 1995. But the one-hit wonder from the mid-'90s is on the forefront of an odd new experiment in promoting and selling music. The group's new album is being released by Song Records, a collaborative effort between the airline, Artemis Records and Creative Branding Group Inc., a Los Angeles marketing company.

Song Records is an attempt to establish a pop-culture imprint that Song, the airline, hopes will give it a cooler place in the sky than its competition. The venture will expose a select number of music acts, both established and new, to a captive audience of air travelers. While Artemis, owned by Sheridan Square Entertainment Inc., is a partner in Song Records, the venture also plans to release and promote albums from acts signed to other, bigger labels.

At the same time, the Song Records label could be seen as attempt by two flagging industries to prop each other up. With profit margins in air travel tightly squeezed and the industry consolidating, even low-cost airlines are looking for ways to stand out. And with music sales in an ongoing tailspin and radio playlists ever tougher to crack, record labels are looking for any edge they can get, whether it's offering up artists for TV commercials that look like their videos or using music in ads that sometimes offer more exposure than the radio.

Daniel Glass, the chief executive of Artemis Records, says the Song Records experiment offers a chance to circumvent traditional avenues for marketing pop music, such as radio airplay and retail promotion, which are becoming increasingly constrained.

"There's a general frustration with the way records are sold," says Mr. Glass. He cites as inspiration for the Song Records venture the success Starbucks Corp. recently had with Ray Charles's posthumous album "Genius Loves Company." Thanks to heavy promotion in its 4,500 North American stores, the coffee chain accounted for nearly one-third of the title's total U.S. sales of three million albums: "Everyone's very turned on with what happened with Ray Charles and Starbucks," Mr. Glass says.

Brooks Branch, the president of Creative Branding and the man who oversees Song Records, says: "In a floundering music industry, the things that are working are innovations like the iPod or Starbucks. In a floundering airline industry, the things that are working are Song and other budget airlines."

Song passengers will be presented with an onslaught of promotions for the album. Travelers will be given the option to listen to its 13 songs and watch the video for one of them, "A Lifetime," on the planes' state-of-the-art digital in-flight entertainment system.

Designed by Panasonic Avionics Corp., the system has movie and videogame content picked with the help of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency. Among its content is a trivia game that is soon to include questions about Better Than Ezra. Notes Mr. Glass: "You're captive on a plane for one to seven hours" -- during which time the Better Than Ezra CD may be purchased from flight attendants.

The airline-cum-record label plans to release about five titles a year and will engage in similar efforts on behalf of all of them. The next artist on its release schedule is a Philadelphia R&B singer named Jaguar Wright, who has never released an album before.

Song has tried to make itself stand out by offering low ticket prices while emphasizing stylish touches. Song President Joanne Smith says that if other discount airlines could be considered comparable to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., she has tried to make Song the airborne equivalent to Target Corp. "People want a better experience, but they don't want to pay a lot more for it," she says.

To that end, Song offers an organic menu created by the former chef at New York's Heartbeat restaurant and, beginning in August, will feature a cocktail menu by nightclub mogul Rande Gerber.

Among the other distinguishing features on Song: an inflight fitness routine devised by celebrity trainer David Barton, and flight-attendant uniforms designed by Kate Spade. The airline charges for food, movies and videogames.

The Song Records label, Ms. Smith adds, is a similarly ancillary "brand extension," designed to burnish the airline's hip image. To Mr. Glass, the deal is potentially worth "hundreds of millions of dollars" in free marketing.

There is little question that Song Records is at heart a marketing vehicle. The airline arranged for Better Than Ezra to play during an evening reception at the $3,500-a-head American Express Publishing Luxury Summit, co-sponsored by Song last month on South Carolina's Kiawah Island.

Also on the agenda for the three-day confab: Seminars like "Raising the Bar in Customer Service" and "What We Know (a lot!!!) About the Uberconsumer."