In this article the authors analyse the impact that the downloading of music files on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks has on record sales in the French market. They use various statistics on the production and consumption of music recorded in France to show that there is indeed a crisis in the sale of records in France, but that this crisis is not entirely imputable to pirating on P2P networks. Other factors could explain declining record sales: the decrease in consumers' income; the weakening of the star system; the end of the CD format cycle; and the reduction of barriers to entry in distribution and promotion, triggered by digitization.