{blackbabes} Beyonce and Jay Z's joint tour could be a game-changer

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Well, it took them long enough.

Nearly 12 years after releasing debut collaboration '03 Bonnie and Clyde, music's unstoppable couple, Beyoncé and Jay Z, are embarking on their first joint tour, hitting 16 North American cities this summer and launching Wednesday in Miami.

It's the perfect move for the dynamic husband-and-wife duo, who are behind two of last year's most-talked-about albums: Beyoncé's celebrated self-titled effort, which surprised the world when she released it with 17 music videos in December (2 million copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan), and Jay Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail, which was given away to 1 million Samsung Galaxy users via a smartphone app last July (2.2 million copies, 1 million of which were purchased by Samsung).

And with one of spring's biggest songs in duet Drunk in Love (which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 and sold 1.6 million downloads) and stories about them and young daughter Blue Ivy flooding the media, America's love affair with these prominent parents doesn't seem to be slowing down.

"People are definitely infatuated with them as a power couple, first and foremost," says Chuck Creekmur, CEO of AllHipHop.com. "A lot of people look at them as a royal family of sorts and idealize them in a lot of ways to represent true love and a fairy tale coming true."

But will their On the Run tour be a storybook success? Reports surfaced last week that the stadium show wasn't selling well and blamed poor ticket sales on the infamous elevator fight between Jay Z and Beyoncé's sister, Solange. Live Nation has debunked those rumors, telling Billboard that the tour has sold $86 million in tickets.

"If ticket sales don't reach expectations, it will be viewed as negative, but they played it safe here," says Yahoo Music senior editor Billy Johnson Jr. of the couple, who have toured extensively this past year, both solo and with others (Jay Z hit the road with Justin Timberlake last summer). "There aren't a million dates for this stretch," but they could just be doing a "soft run to see how it goes, and then gauge what their next steps will be. It's strategic and smart."

Those are two adjectives regularly applied to the business-savvy pair, whose innovative album releases were hailed as game-changers in the music industry. But others have faltered in trying to replicate their success: Skrillex and Kid Cudi released unannounced albums this spring with middling results (Skrillex's Recess sold 111,000 copies; Cudi's Satellite Flight sold 108,000), and Mariah Carey revealed plans for a surprise album in April, only to go with a traditional release in late May (her Me. I Am Mariah ... The Elusive Chanteuse has sold 83,000 copies).

"It's a hard thing for almost anyone besides Beyoncé to pull off because there aren't many artists (whose album) you're just going to spend $16 on any more," says Vulture senior editor Amanda Dobbins. "It takes a huge amount of celebrity and success to pull that off."

Pop divas Rihanna and Madonna would have the wattage, but they "pride themselves on being original and trend-setters, so it wouldn't look good to follow Beyoncé," Creekmur says.

If anything, they and other top names are dreaming up their own alternative release strategies so they will not copy Beyoncé and Jay Z.

"They always set the bar really high," Creekmur says. "Even with streaming and pirated music more prevalent than ever, they've still been able to move units, keep people excited about their music and keep that megastar status.

"There's only a few that can do it like Jay Z and Beyoncé."

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