All this talk about a singles-driven marketplace makes it unavoidable for me to see the irony in how technology has affected the music business in a way no one bothers to mention. In other words, the relevance of singles over albums; artists signing all-inclusive deals (recording, management, touring, merchandise)…it’s staring to look like the ’50s all over again.

One of these days some artist is gonna find themselves face-to-face with the 21st century version of a-Cadillac-in-lieu-of-payment-for-their-work scenario. Let’s not kid ourselves: the bloodsuckers will reinvent themselves and make it happen somehow. Soon. Just you wait.

Does decline in radio listenership have an impact on such things?

I like U2 fine, not fanatically. I have owned past albums, happily, but not since a few albums back. I don’t think I’ve heard GOYB. If it was what they played at the Grammys, I was unmoved, even turned off.

I buy albums if they are recommended to me by people I trust…not by critics or columnists (or NPR’s fogey/indie slant), but by friends, and lately, I buy a good amount of music when artists I am fanatical about recommend something themselves (depending on the honesty of the context)…that’s probably defined my last year’s music purchasing.

No one I know is excited about this album…that’s all. As a result, I surely am not, either.

Al’s right that sales climate alone turns 840K into 500K four years later. That’s a no-brainer.

Dan et al. are right that the weak leadoff single makes all the difference. And let’s remove our opinions from the equation and just look at radio-adoption numbers: in ’04, “Vertigo” positively shot to the top of the rock charts, literally in under a month. Radio loved the single and played the shit out of it, and even if the song became a punchline later (cf. South Park, Colin Farrell on SNL), at the time the public loved it too; sales at iTunes were through the roof.

Plus (can’t believe no one’s mentioned this yet; Maura reminded me the other day), in ’04 U2 had a big honkin’ Apple ad and their very own iPod to go with the release of “Vertigo” and Atomic Bomb. That couldn’t have hurt. (Which, BTW, didn’t hurt Coldplay’s last album, as long as we’re bringing that up.)

Finally, Matos is right that “The Fly” and “Numb” are better songs than “Boots.” That’s just my opinion (and his), but c’mon.

BUT: that doesn’t negate Al’s point, that all three of those songs deserve to be put in the same bucket, because all three were radio-tepid leadoff singles that the albums in question had to overcome. Achtung and Zooropa both debuted at No. 1, but with fairly modest Soundscan totals (295K for the former and, IIRC, about 350K for the latter). Achtung sold steadily over time during 1991-92, going on to become U2′s second-biggest album ever, no thanks to “The Fly” but to “Mysterious Ways,” “One,” et al.; Zooropa stalled at double-platinum because it produced no serious radio hits.

Bottom line, singles matter, and Dan’s core point (and, I guess, Digital Music News’s) is fundamentally correct.