A long-lived music store will be closing its doors in downtown Vancouver.

In just over three months, Sikora's Classical Records at 432 West Hastings Street is fated to become the latest victim of Spotify and other online streaming services.

The 40-year-old shop has a massive inventory of more than 50,000 LPs and nearly 25,000 CDs.

Co-owner Ed Savenye told CBC News that he's experiencing the gamut of emotions over the decision to shut down the business on February 28, 2019.

"There's obviously sadness...and I'll be honest, anger in that a lot of people, for the sake of a couple of bucks, they just deserted us," Savenye told the public broadcaster.

Sikora's was founded by Dick and Dorothy Sikora and Rod Horsley in 1979. It was taken over in 2001 by Savenye and Roger Scobie.

“Our strength or service is that we can be a starting point for anyone who comes in,” Savenye told the Straight in a 2017 interview. “I have people come in and say, ‘I try to go to Amazon to find opera, but all I get is Charlotte Church and Andrea Bocelli.’ There’s nothing wrong with them, but they don’t represent opera other than singing an aria here or there and doing it tolerably well.

"But if you want to know about opera, come to the professionals, and we’ll steer you in the right direction," Savenye continued. "If you know exactly what you’re looking for, then sure, you can find, point, and then click online. But for people who want to learn, who want to experiment and go, ‘Look, I’ve heard Beethoven’s Fifth, what do I do next?’ that’s really hard to do online.”

One of Sikora's customers over the years has been Vancouver physician and author Gabor Maté, who confessed to an addiction to classical music in his book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction.

Maté revealed that he once went to Sikora's for a fix of music while a patient was in labour. And Maté's awareness of his own classical-music habit led him to greater empathy for people coping with addiction to hard drugs just a few blocks down the street from Sikora's.