Ralph Mercado, a promoter who took his passion for Latin music and built an empire around it, not only staging concerts but creating a recording and publishing label, a film and video company, and nightclubs and restaurants, died on Tuesday in Hackensack, N.J. He was 67.

The cause was cancer, said Blanca Lasalle, a spokeswoman, who gave no other details.

Mr. Mercado managed stars like Tito Puente and Celia Cruz, and discovered and helped shape the careers of others like Marc Anthony and La India. He organized concerts of salsa music — that lively hybrid of Cuban rhythms, big bands and American harmonies — in large halls like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.

His RMM label recorded more than 130 artists in genres including salsa, Latin jazz, Latin rock and merengue.

“Artists are on the map because of his label,” Eddie Palmieri the Latin jazz and salsa pianist, said in an interview with The New York Times in 2001. “He took us to Madison Square Garden and Carnegie Hall.”