SACO — For more than 20 years, Bill O’Neil’s House of Rock and Roll has been a destination for music lovers, a place to buy compact discs, records and tapes, and chat about music.

Owner Bill O’Neil said that after 24 years, he will be closing the doors for good sometime later this month.

“It’s time,” he said, sitting behind the counter of his store on Route 1 Wednesday afternoon.

O’Neil opened the store in June of 1988 at the age of 38, after working full-time in radio.

In recent years, sales of CDs worldwide have been on the decline as people turn to digital media to get their music.

“This isn’t a growth industry anymore,” said O’Neil.

In the past, people sometimes bought a CD for one song they liked on an album. Now he said, “You don’t have to get out of your pajamas to download a song for 99 cents.

“It’s the way of the world,” he said.

O’Neil said he’s been working 60 to 70 hours a week, and hasn’t had three days in a row off since he opened. He said, however, it’s been fun, and he can’t complain. He loves music and has enjoyed working for himself.

Ironically, he said record sales have increased during the past few years, though not enough to make up for the loss of CD sales. Most of those buying records are younger collectors, he said.

“If I see someone under 30, I know they’re buying records,” he said.

Though he said it’s not fiscally responsible to have a physical location, O’Neil plans to continue to sell CDs and records online, at www.billrecords.gemm.com. He will also continue his DJ business ”“ playing music at weddings, reunions and other events ”“ and will keep his Facebook page up so he can post music trivia there regularly.

The store is located in the former garage of a house. It’s not a place in a mall where people stop by after shopping somewhere else, he said, but “a destination store.”

“It’s an unusual location,” said O’Neil. “If I had any business acumen when I started, I wouldn’t have picked it out,” he said with a laugh. But, he said, the rent was affordable.

“I paid more for the sign than the first year’s rent,” he said. And he said, the location on Route 1 is easy to find.

It’s been a place many people have come to, again and again, and O’Neil said he’s had a loyal client base during the years.

“A lot of them are more upset than I am” about the store closing, he said.

Although music can be obtained instantaneously online, one can’t get the atmosphere of a music store or the knowledge and recommendations of staff, he noted.

Customer John Robinson of Old Orchard Beach said he was sad to see the store go.

“He’s a walking encyclopedia of information,” he said            of O’Neil.

Rifling through CDs, he picked up a copy of a Spooky Tooth album.

“You can’t find that anywhere,” he said.

Farther south, Mike Pollack, owner of Mike’s Music in Sanford, has been in business for about 20 years, selling CDs, records, tapes and memorabilia. He said it’s been challenging making ends meet in a technologically changing world as well as a down economy.

“It’s just a whole different world,” said Pollack.

Although many people today may be turning on their iPods and Mp3 players to listen to music, Pollack prefers records, which he said have a better sound quality, “It’s like night and day.”

Pollack said to keep his business going, he’s increased the hours the store is open and focuses on keeping hard-to-find items, and he sees many record collectors come through his doors as well.

For the first time since 2004, U.S. sales of music albums have increased, and rising digital sales are finally making headway against the decade-long decline of CDs. In 2011, 458 million albums, including both digital and CDs, were sold in the United States.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, digital album sales rose nearly 20 percent to 103 million, while sales of CDs fell nearly 6 percent to 225 million. The rest of the total is made up of digital single tracks, where nearly 10 tracks are counted as one album. Digital single sales rose nearly 9 percent to 1.27 billion.

Digital sales gains are likely here to stay, said Dave Bakula, senior vice president of analytics at Nielsen, noting that more consumers are using high-end mobile devices, and Google Inc. has launched an online music store, with services geared toward Android users.

For now, music enthusiasts and collectors have a few local options left for perusing and purchasing CDs and records in person ”“ such as Mike’s Music ”“ but only time will tell whether such stores will continue on or become part of history.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story. Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or [email protected].