http://i.saac.me/post/what-if-bittorrent-was-invented-before... I wrote an article discussing similar themes on my blog a while back, and I too think the Kickstarter model is the future of the creative industries.

(I might do a follow up to that article with some further thoughts. Basically, I think the reason the crowd patronage model is the future is because it allows the artist to cover their fixed, up-front costs. Since the Internet has made distribution costs effectively 0, covering your fixed costs is the way to go)