This fascinating article about P2P monitoring firm BigChampagne suggests that P2P is transforming the way record labels market their artists.

To take an example, here’s what I can tell you about the Arcade Fire, thanks to a BigChampagne report. The week of August 4, 1.3% of filesharers– maybe 200,000-300,000 people– were sharing the band’s music, up from just .20% last December. From their debut LP Funeral, “Rebellion (Lies)” scored the most listeners– and the most searches– and “In the Backseat” got the least. San Francisco is their biggest market this week, with 2.17% audience penetration (far more than, say, a mere .30% in Colorado Springs). And 60.52% of Arcade Fire fans also have Coldplay in their collections, while only 4.22% of Coldplay listeners have Arcade Fire– but you can also see that 34.63% of the Arcade Fire fans have tracks by fellow indie Canadians Hot Hot Heat, and 9.65% of Hot Hot Heat’s fans like to get their Funeral on.