Since the advent of peer-to-peer sharing, what we used to qualify as consumer goods are now free, and the status quo of paying-for-things is slowly disappearing. Everything entertaining is free: free music, free games and free videos of cats falling asleep.

I never considered what free entertainment meant to me until my favourite podcast came to an end, and I was left questioning if I would ever forgive this cruel world.

The GameSpy Debriefings, a hilarious podcast from Gamespy.com about everything but video games, was being cancelled. Through hundreds of hours of free comedic tomfoolery, I unconsciously developed a sickening sense of bitter entitlement — for something I never really contributed to. Never again would I be treated to another hilarious story about losing bowel control at a college football game.

The hosts I had grown to appreciate and follow did not give up though; they took their comedic stylings elsewhere, away from any corporate oversight, and asked their fans to fund their new podcast, The Comedy Button. They immediately began pitching their new entertainment venture on Kickstarter.com.

Kickstarter is a platform for artists to pitch their ideas and fundraise for projects that need capital investment. Artists who simply can’t afford to create their own art rely on fan generosity. The artists may be musicians, painters, performance artists, podcasters or even inventors.

“Backers” can pledge a minimum of $1 or as much as they want to donate. With every level of donation, backers receive more valuable incentives. The projects must reach 100 per cent of their donation goal before anybody’s credit card is charged. Once the projects get the green light, Kickstarter takes a five per cent cut of the total amount on top of the two per cent that goes to Amazon.com, which processes the payments.

Since 2009, Kickstarter has funded over 10,000 projects with a 44 per cent success rate. The number of interesting projects funded through the site is staggering, and there appears to be a lot of goodwill going around. Though there is some skepticism of Kickstarter’s fees and filtering process, their crowd-funded model is generally a neat idea. It is already happening in many big sectors, from video games to movies, and it will be interesting to see its impact in the future.

Through funding The Comedy Button on Kickstarter, I not only get a small token of appreciation with my pledge, but I also feel like I helped create something meaningful for fellow fans. Ultimately, it encouraged me to pay deserving people to entertain me.

So I urge you to go find an artist worth funding, be it through Kickstarter or by some other means. Many podcasts accept donations or sell merchandise. It might help you stay mindful about what it takes to keep you entertained.