The music is fading for a long-standing Campustown business that started in the Illini Union 34 years ago.

The last music store on campus, Record Service will close its doors for good by May.

Record Service owner Phil Strang said the store had lost money six of the last seven years, and business has declined 20 percent each of the past four years.

"We're to the point where we're losing money every week we're open," Strang said. "Even with a reduced staff we're struggling to make payroll."

Not too long ago, there were five music stores on campus.

Rose Records and Streetside Records closed in the late 1990s. Record Swap left campus four years ago and when Discount Den moved from Green Street two years ago, it stopped selling compact discs.

Record Service was founded in November of 1969, as part of what the University called the Undergraduate Student Association Record Ordering Service. The business was on the second floor of the Illini Union. Students ordered music for about $1 per album. The business became so popular it began to compete with other local businesses.

The Daily Illini reported that Record Service was forced to move out of the Union and into the basement of the University YMCA in for legal reasons.

When the business was started, Strang was a junior in communications at the University and earned $1.50 an hour. Fourteen co-owners, including Strang, incorporated the business in 1971.

A year and a half later, it moved to Green Street, where Legends is now located. Record Service moved to its location on Sixth and Green streets in December 1981.

Record Service's Lincoln Square Mall location closed after 17 years in 1998.

"Over the years everyone else left except for me," Strang said. "I was here at the beginning and I'll be here at the end."

Strang said his biggest competitors were not music stores, but the Internet.

For years, Strang had complained that downloading and burning music from the Internet was a threat to the music industry.

"We're at the point where the average college student thinks music should be free," Strang said. "In the last three years, 100,000 people have lost their jobs in the music industry. We've been telling record companies CD burning and downloading were destroying the record business. It's hard to compete with free."

Record Service employees tried to organize a benefit to raise money for the store last month.

"I don't think there is any way we can rescue this place," said Record Service employee Kris Bauer.

Bauer, who had been buying music from Record Service since he was in fifth grade, said the store's closure was a huge loss for Champaign-Urbana.

"There used to be five independent music stores in town. Now we have none," he said. "We were the only music store in Illinois that was part of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores."

Record Swap owner Bob Diener moved his store from Campustown to Urbana four years ago.

"If we had stayed on campus we probably would be out of business," Diener said.

He said high rent, lack of parking and students downloading music caused him to move off campus to get an older customer base.

Diener said he was shocked when he heard the news of Record Service's closing.

"It's a shame Record Service has to close after all the years they have been open," he said. "I would never have imagined Campustown without a record store."

Diener used to co-own three Record Swap stores in Chicago, but all three have closed.

Although business had been rough, Diener remained optimistic his business would survive.

"Business (has) improved in the last six months but it's nothing compared to what it once was," he said.

Strang now has to do something he has never had to do — search for a job. He has been working at Record Service since college.

The classical music store on the second floor, which has been a part of Record Service, will close its doors on Dec. 30.

Strang said he should have closed his business three years ago.

"I love music and this store," Strang said. "I stretched it out as long as I could. I'm trying not to be depressed about it. In 1969 we started off with nothing except a pencil, notebook and record catalog. And at the end as we go out of business and there is nothing left, but we sure had a great time."