Just got my Patreon invoice for June, which reminds me to blog briefly about patronage as one business model when what is being produced is digital, and hence has basically zero marginal cost per additional consumer. Patreon is a system for making regular (monthly) payments to creators you want to support, so they can continue to provide their content for free. I support electronic musician Zoë Blade, the Late Night Linux podcast, and the Astronomy Cast podcast.

Patreon is by no means a perfect service, but as far as I know it has by far the greatest adoption of any similar system. Worth a look if you’re a creator of digital things, or if you want to support those who are.