McCartney to offer new album for downloading

Paul McCartney's new album, Memory Almost Full, will be his first solo effort available for downloading and streaming.

The ex-Beatle revealed to Billboard, the music industry magazine, that the digital distribution deal will only pertain to this album and not his back catalogue. Still, it marks a turnaround for the musician who has not allowed much of his music to be available online.

Memory Almost Full also marks the musician's first album since leaving his longtime home, EMI/Capitol Records. It premieres June 5 through Starbucks' new Hear Music label and will be available through the Apple iTunes Store.

The 64-year-old singer has described his new album as "evocative, emotional, rocking," and harkening to the past.

"It's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective, drawing from memory, like memories from being a kid, from Liverpool and from summers gone," said McCartney in a statement released in March.

The songwriter refused to say if any of the 13 tracks referred to his contentious divorce from his second wife, Heather Mills McCartney. The two engaged in a public feud soon after the announcement of their separation last spring. Since the start of 2007, they have kept quiet about their divorce proceedings.

McCartney indicated another big announcement would be due concerning the online distribution of Beatles music: "We're well on the way to something happening here, which is very exciting."

Efforts to release the Beatles' catalogue for downloading have been a long time coming, held up by a trademark feud between iTunes-owner Apple Inc. and Apple Corps., the Beatles label.

Last fall, McCartney released his fourth classical album, Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart), an oratorio that he said was inspired by his first wife, Linda, who died of breast cancer in 1998. It won a Classical Brit award May 4.