What is the difference between Buma, Stemra and Sena?
Buma and Stemra belong together and collect on behalf of the authors of the music: the composer and the lyricist. Sena stands apart from them and collects on behalf of the performers: the artist and the record label. Those are two separate rights on two separate bases, and in principle you get two bills for them.
Buma and Stemra: copyright
Buma collects for the performing right: presenting music to the public. Stemra collects for the reproduction right: fixing music on a carrier. For a business owner playing music it is almost always Buma.
The basis is the Dutch Copyright Act, and the right sits with the composer and the lyricist. In many sectors this is the lower of the two bills.
Sena: neighbouring rights
Sena collects on behalf of performing artists and phonogram producers, under Article 7 of the Dutch Neighbouring Rights Act. The basis is equitable remuneration for playing commercially released phonograms.
This is a separate bill entirely apart from the Buma/Stemra one, and in many sectors it is the higher of the two. That surprises business owners most often.
Why you still get one letter
Because almost everyone deals with both, they collect jointly under the name mijnlicentie.nl. One letter, one invoice, two rights holders behind it.
That is convenient but it hides the distinction, and the distinction is exactly what counts: if one basis disappears, the other does not automatically go with it. With music that has no human author both fall away, because then the author and the performer are equally absent.
Tariffs: Buma/Stemra and Sena, tariff year 2026, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge. Sources are published on bumastemra.nl and sena.nl.
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Why neither applies with us
Our music is generated by AI. There is no composer and no lyricist, so no copyright for Buma/Stemra. There is no performing artist and no commercially released phonogram, so no neighbouring right for Sena.
Both bases are absent, not just one of the two. That is the whole point: a solution that only removed Buma would leave the larger bill standing.
Read the legal reasoningQuestions that come with this
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