For books and music, I pirate them and if I genuinely like it and would buy it myself then I donate the cost directly to the artist (unless they’re an artists with a stupid amount of money). For music it’s kind of depends on how much I like their music, but usually I’ll donate the cost of an album or something (I don’t donate if they already have stupid amounts of money though). For books, I’ll usually donate the cost of a paperback (5$-$10) if I liked it, or a hardcover ($25-$30)
It comes with multiple benefits: I don’t pay for something I don’t like, the entire cost actually goes to the people I want to support instead of 40% or whatever going to whoever prints the books or releases the music, and I no longer have to pay subscriptions to support platforms that take advantage of small artists and pocket a significant amount of what I pay for the subscription (looking at you Amazon and Spotify)