2 Epic Fails in a Row! Jay Z's two newest companies both ending in disaster

On paper, it must have seemed like a dream launch strategy: A stage packed with the world’s most famous musicians joining together to sing the praises of the first artist-owned digital music platform, designed to single handedly rescue the music industry. In real life, though, dreams have a way of turning into nightmares. And that’s precisely what happened when Jay Z and a contingent of music industry superstars, including Madonna, Kanye West and Rihanna, got together to launch Tidal, a subscription streaming service touting its higher pay rates for artists. While the event certainly conferred star power, it was also viewed by many as being a little, well, tone deaf. Fans mocked the event on Twitter, calling it a faux starving artists’ campaign. Even fellow musicians scoffed at Jay Z & Co. for failing to spotlight independent and unsigned artists struggling to eke out a living in the music business. In the months since, Tidal has struggled to respond to critics and find solid footing. The initial burst of bad publicity soon swelled into (ahem!) a tidal wave, with a round of layoffs that included the CEO, revelations that the app had fallen from the iPhone top 700 download chart, leaked -- and possibly fake -- royalty statements, and an epic Twitter rant from Jay Z himself.