Steve Winwood is embracing P2P in a promotion campaign with "Access Hollywood," reports CNET, to help push his independently released album, About Time.

But it's not just a song that Winwood is putting on the P2P networks. It's like a commercial. Winwood has created a eight-minute version of "Dear Mr. Fantasy" that includes a five-second commercial "blurb" that directs listeners to the Steve Winwood page at the "Access Hollywood" website.

Congrats to Stevie on using P2P in a new way. Since this is the first of its kind, the promotion could have a big impact on his album's sales. As they become more commonplace, expect the marginal impact to decrease. Winwood got benefits of media coverage that followers simply won't get. Since P2P is search driven, followers will need to find a way to get people to search for them--a tough task for new bands people don't yet know. But for now, the novelty factor can really impact consumer awareness. Let's see how this pans out.