17 Weirdest Things that Happened at Jay-Z's Tidal Press Conference

Jay-Z welcomed the media and a bunch of other mega-huge artists to a March 30 press conference to relaunch his recently purchased music streaming service Tidal.

It's supposed to serve as some sort of musician-owned alternative to Spotify and Rdio, but the weirdness of the press conference might have eclipsed whatever the stars had to say about the $20-a-month ($10 for a lo-fi version) lossless service.

01
First, it's a pretty weird grouping, and Alicia Keys gave the keynote

Via All Hip Hop
02
Then, they filmed reactions shots of robots

Via All Hip Hop
03
And a mouse, presumably a dead one

Via All Hip Hop
04
Alicia Keys quoted Friedrich Neitzsche during her speech

"Without music, life would be a mistake."

He also said this:

"Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."

Via Wikimeida
05
Then everyone signed some sort of pact that they were launching this for the musicians or something

Via All Hip Hop
06
Beyoncé blew a kiss to her signature, it was strange

Via All Hip Hop
07
Coldplay's Chris Martin couldn't sign in person, so just creeped like a pro

Via All Hip Hop
08
Kanye's signature took half a second

And he's gone.

Via AllHipHop
09
Madonna put her leg up on the desk to sign. Why? No clue.

Via All Hip Hop
10
Calvin Harris approved of robots

Via All Hip Hop
11
Then everyone clapped for themselves

Via All Hip Hop
12
Then everyone stood around SUPER awkwardly, maybe waiting for the song to end?

Via All Hip Hop
13
Everyone looked very uncomfortable as the song went on and on

Via All Hip Hop
14
This is what stars look like waiting in line for the bathroom

Via All Hip Hop
15
Poor Jack White started thinking about human mortality

Via All Hip Hop
16
Even though the song still played, the lights were turned down

Then everyone exited. Stage left.

Via All Hip Hop
17
Usher was there, but he was just charming. If you can believe it.

Via New York Magazine