Concert Tours Are Where the Real Money Is

July 11 -- — In 100-degree heat, the crowd starts to build in front of a Las Vegas nightclub two hours before the doors swing open. By 9:30 p.m., 1,500 sweaty people are packed inside, where it's almost as hellish as it is outdoors.

Onstage, though, Jay-Z barely breaks a sweat. The languid rapper, who has accessorized a military-style T-shirt with diamond-encrusted dog tags, gets his fans to do much of the work: They rhyme along with him during each song, finishing his verses when he holds out the microphone. One hour later the rapper walks offstage, working his way through the kitchen. His entourage of 20 retires to the green room to joke and pass around vodka. Jay-Z enters a separate suite and sits, alone, with two bodyguards parked out front.

Graced with the requisite rapper scowl, the predictable rap sheet and an ear for a catchy hook, Jay-Z will repeat this ritual through the summer on a much larger, more lucrative scale. The club show is a warm-up for the 33-city Rock the Mic tour he is headlining with 50 Cent, the muscled, glowering rapper du jour. Touring with them are the hyperactive Busta Rhymes, the playful Missy Elliott and several other acts. Playing to crowds of 20,000, Jay-Z should net around $100,000 per performance, or more than $1,000 per minute onstage.

That's $3.3 million or more for a summer of work, good pay even for Jay-Z, who has sold 30 million records. Musicians of every stripe will make a pile of money touring this summer. The Dixie Chicks, the country crooners who came under fire for opposing the war in Iraq, sold more than $45 million in tickets for 57 shows in less than a week. Eminem, the white-rapper-turned-actor who sold more discs last year than any other musician, sold $5.2 million worth of tickets to 88,000 people for two upcoming sold-out shows at Ford Field in his home city of Detroit.

Graying geezer groups reap the biggest riches, bankrolled by baby boomers who can afford stiff ticket prices. You could see The Who for free at Woodstock in 1969; last year tickets to see the band's two surviving members creak onstage sold for an average of $77 apiece.