Sir Paul McCartney has broken a 43-year relationship with EMI to sign with a new music label set up by Starbucks, the coffeehouse chain.

Sir Paul, whose last solo album for EMI achieved modest sales, expects to release an album of new material in early June. He said that he was impressed with Starbucks’ plan to sell it through its 13,500 outlets.

Starbucks, which has previously released compilations of licensed songs, plans to sign more established and new acts to its Hear Music label. The company’s biggest success to date has been the Grammy-win-ning album Genius Loves Company of Ray Charles duets.

With 44 million customers a week, Starbucks is an attractive destination for older stars whose ability to command radio airplay is limited.By signing directly to retail outlets, artists can cut out record companies and gain higher royalties.

Retailers such as HMV are suffering a disastrous decline in CD sales. This has been attributed to people downloading songs. “It’s a new world now,” Sir Paul said in a video chat with Howard Schultz, the Starbucks chairman, during a shareholders’ meeting.

Starbucks will release the album online and it will also be sold through other retailers.

Other artists to sell direct to retailers include The Eagles and the country singer Garth Brooks, who signed exclusive deals with Wal-Mart to sell their new material.

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