Playing music in your shop: what is allowed and what does it cost?
Background music in your shop is allowed, but not free. As soon as customers can hear it there is a public performance, and payments are due to Buma/Stemra and Sena. The tariff depends on the number of square metres where the music can be heard and on the category your shop falls into. Only music with no human author removes those payments.
What you pay depends on your floor area
Buma/Stemra and Sena work in brackets: up to a hundred square metres, up to two hundred, and so on. The jump between brackets is large, so it pays to know which one you are in.
It is about the area where the music can be heard, not your total floor space. A stockroom without speakers does not count; a display window or fitting room where it can be heard does.
Shopping centres, canteens and fitness spaces fall into a different category from an ordinary shop. That feeds through into the amount.
The second bill is the one you did not see coming
You pay your music supplier for the subscription, and Buma/Stemra and Sena for the rights on top. That second bill is separate from your supplier and lands directly with you.
When comparing quotes that is the only question that counts: are the levies included in the amount or do they come on top? Usually the latter, and then you are comparing two things that are not the same.
Several locations
The levies apply per location, even where your subscription is per account. With a chain or franchise that adds up quickly, and it is where the two bills diverge most.
Work out below what one location costs, and multiply that by the number of sites where music can be heard.
Tariffs: Buma/Stemra and Sena, tariff year 2026, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge. Sources are published on bumastemra.nl and sena.nl.
Work out what you save on your current licence.
Slide in your situation and you will see what you currently pay in music rights every year. That amount disappears, on top of what you save on your current music subscription.
What it costs with us
One amount per location per month, excluding VAT, and no second bill. The music is generated by AI, so there is no composer, no lyricist, no performing artist and no phonogram producer — and therefore nobody who can collect.
For a shop that also means: your own promotions between the tracks, a mood that follows the part of the day, and with several sites everything from one dashboard. Background music in shops does not have to be a fixed playlist your staff know by heart after a fortnight.
Read the legal reasoningQuestions that come with this
Ready to hear it for yourself?
Request access to the beta. Your own station for your business, 14 days free trial, cancel monthly after that.