Why the best violinist on Earth can out-earn a merely great one by 1,000x

Economist Sherwin Rosen noticed that in markets where technology lets one performer reach a mass audience, recordings, broadcasts, streaming, tiny differences in perceived quality translate into enormous differences in earnings. A performer only slightly better than a rival can capture nearly the whole market, since listeners can costlessly consume the very best instead of settling for second best. It's why a handful of stars earn disproportionately more than the tier just below them.

— Sherwin Rosen, The Economics of Superstars — American Economic Review, 1981