Some brilliant soul--I am assuming Steve Jobs--came up with the concept of giving consumers the ability to legally download songs individually as they are released. This person has since become very rich, I'm sure, as iTunes seems to be the premier outlet these days to purchase new music. Records for most digital downloads in a specific period of time are continually being broken. There has never been an easier way to shoot your single straight to #1 than to hold off until just the right moment comes along to release your single digitally. But what do you sacrifice for 200,000 digital downloads of a first single in one week? Just about 200,000 CDs sold when the album is released. Sure, the argument can be made that you do not just buy an album for one song, but who will even consider it when they already have the song? Say what you will, but the figures back it up--first week and overall sales are off from what they used to be.
The same concept works in reverse. Case in point: Mariah Carey's most recent single "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time." Radio friendly? Absolutely. A wise single choice? Sure. But were digital sales going to work the same magic for Mariah that they did for "Touch My Body?" No. The 400,000 Mariah fans you needed at least half of to purchase the digital single of "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" already owned the song. Sure, Island/Def Jam tried their best by adding a verse from T.I., but let me tell you from experience: for the most part, Mariah and T.I. do not have the same fans, so his fans weren't going to purchase the track either just for one verse. Therefore, the single's inability to ride high on the charts prevented it from getting played on the radio because what station wants to play a song that is not popular? This resulted in no one new discovering the song, so neither the single nor the album received enough promo for either to sell any significant amount.
So, basically, digital singles prevent albums from selling very well, yet albums sell enough that further single releases do NOT sell enough to chart very high, rendering the single a failure to promote the album it comes from, which is the whole point. Of course, the record industry has tried some things to make more money in their current situation. Have you wondered lately why album release dates are set so long after the album's first single is digitally released? 
Well, the execs have noticed the wonders releasing a song digitally that is not yet available in stores on any album has done for that song's charting ability. Therefore, they make room for a second digital single release a few weeks before the album is released (once the first single's popularity has died down a bit), so that they can sell as many copies of the second song as possible before the general public realizes they are about to buy the song again on the album (if they even buy the album). 
Have you found yourself wondering what is up with all these re-releases? Well, when an album is not selling anymore, the record company reissues that album with new material, which gives the label a whole new set of songs to exclusively sell digitally until the re-release drops. This causes any well-known artist to rocket right back up to the top of the charts because none of their fans own this new material yet.These schemes are all fine and dandy, but they just seem silly. I say that because, if you think about it, they are. Why would you come up with the concept of pushing back an album release a few weeks to sell a few more 99-cent digital copies? Why would you even think of re-packaging material you just released less than a year ago? Let us discuss approximate monetary figures here. If you sell 100,000 digital copies of a song, $100,000 is made. If you sell 100,000 copies of a CD, at least $1,000,000 is made. And surely, if you have any kind of decent promotion team, you can sell an album to at least 20% of the people that are willing to purchase the song that comes from it. If so, BAM! You just doubled the profit you would have made only selling digital singles. All-in-all, do these industry people not realize that the problems they are having were caused by THEMSELVES?
In other words, stop complaining.
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