Cut out the middle men, rely on donations. Or still sell your stuff for a price, those who want it for free can reach for the Pirate Bay anyway —it's about the same. You won't be rich, but you may live off your craft.

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Other schemes such as global licence may also help.

We also need easy, anonymous micro payment. Like, click a button to give 10 to 50 cents every time you feel like it when using something (song, e-book, software…).

Oh, and, like, universal basic income. It's hard to get paid when we contribute to the commons, so basic income can help a great deal. (Seriously, if we had sustainable basic income —dunno if it's possible right now— we could probably abolish copyright and patent laws right away —and not worry about the massive lawyer lay-offs that will ensue.)

Check out Bandcamp. I'm a follower of a number of "post-rock" review accounts on Facebook and occasionally check 4chan for news of interesting releases. I actually buy 2-5 albums a month; often very good ones too.

Not having to hire Alicia Silverman or whomever the cute-blonde-equivalent-in-2014 is for video clips does cut costs.

if you buy a CD from a artists that is on a major label how much do you think the artist gets? If he wrote the music/lyrics and produced it he will maybe get 2 $ if your not a big star you will get 1 $ or less!

you make money by selling merch and going on tour