Why do supermarkets play music, and what does it cost?
Updated
The short answer Supermarkets play music because it affects how people move through the shop and what they buy. That has been studied for more than forty years, from tempo to the choice between French and German wine.
What you pay now For music made by people you pay Buma/Stemra and Sena, by your square metres. What that is for your supermarket, you work out below. In Belgium, Carrefour is switching to AI music partly for that reason.
With RadioMatic With RadioMatic you pay from € 29.99 per location a month, and nothing to Buma and Sena, because the music is made entirely with AI.
Work out what music in your supermarket costs now
Three questions, and you see what you now spend on Buma/Stemra, Sena and your music service.
How big is your business?
Supermarket radio without Buma and Sena
- A station of your own. The best music in your business every day, and the station remembers your hits.
- We handle your switch. After your trial we cancel Buma/Stemra, Sena and your old music service for you, free of charge. How the switching service works.
- Just atmosphere music, or a complete business radio. With a presenter who talks about your business between the songs, if you want, and with Professional also news and your own adverts.
- Works on what is already there. Sonos, Chromecast, a browser or the line-in of your amplifier.
- 14 days free. A reply within one working day and live in under ten minutes.
From € 29.99 per location per month. What you now pay Buma/Stemra and Sena goes, and so does your current music subscription.
What does music do in a supermarket?
The classic study comes from an American supermarket. Ronald Milliman alternated slow and fast music there. With slow music, customers moved through the shop more slowly. Daily sales were then around 38% higher than with fast music (Milliman, 1982).
Music also steers choice. In a British supermarket, French or German music played at the wine shelf on alternate days. On French days far more French than German wine was sold, and on German days it was the other way round (North, Hargreaves and McKendrick, 1999).
Those effects are real, but they were measured in a single shop and in a different era. Most supermarkets have a plainer reason. A silent shop feels empty. Music softens the noise of fridges and trolleys. And your staff work in it all day.
Brico and Carrefour switch to AI music
In October 2025 VRT NWS (in Dutch) reported that the Belgian DIY chain Brico plays AI music from the company M-Cube. According to M-Cube, the music is generated with AI and then mixed by a human producer. Every track is run through Shazam to avoid it sounding too much like existing work. According to VRT NWS, X2O, Krëfel, Trafic, Oh’Green and Club also use M-Cube’s solutions.
At Carrefour, according to VRT NWS, some independent operators are already experimenting with AI music, and the rollout to all Belgian stores is planned for 2026 to 2028. Carrefour gives two reasons. AI music is cheaper, and it allows music made to measure, for the holidays for example. RetailDetail and Entertainment Business also reported on it.
The Belgian rights organisation Sabam is concerned. According to Steven Desloovere of Sabam, 25 to 28% of what songwriters earn from music in public spaces is at risk. Sabam also holds that payment is due when existing work has been used to train AI models. In Belgium, Ikea deliberately does not choose AI and plays royalty-free music by a human producer.
Can the same happen in the Netherlands?
Yes, it works the same way here. Buma/Stemra itself says that works made entirely by AI without a human creative contribution do not qualify for registration, copyright or payment (in Dutch). We have not found a similar announcement from a Dutch supermarket chain.
Do watch the word royalty-free, though. It can mean there is no rights holder. It can also mean that rights have been bought out or arranged through another organisation. Ask your supplier what they mean by it, and get the answer in writing. More on royalty-free music for commercial use.
M-Cube is also active in the Netherlands and appears on the list of background music suppliers that Buma/Stemra keeps. Ask any AI supplier what the model was trained on as well. See AI music for business.
What does a supermarket pay Buma and Sena?
At Buma/Stemra a supermarket does not fall under the ordinary shop tariff. Supermarkets, department stores and self-service businesses are expressly excluded from it and fall into the more expensive category A (Buma/Stemra, mechanical background music, in Dutch). Sena has its own tariff for supermarkets, department stores and DIY stores, based on the floor area open to the public (Sena, 2026 tariff overview).
Together that comes to around € 2,516 a year for a supermarket up to 1,600 m² in 2026. A smaller shop pays less, a larger one more. Those are base tariffs. Register yourself and pay on time, and you get a discount of up to 33.33%. Work out at the top what it is for your supermarket.
If you run a chain, you pay per branch. A hundred supermarkets of 1,000 m² come to more than € 250,000 a year at the base tariff. Choose "Supermarket" in the calculator at the top to work it out for your own floor area. More on shops in general is on music in shops.
Sources: Buma/Stemra, 2026 mechanical background music tariff, Sena, 2026 tariff overview, VRT NWS, 15 October 2025, all in Dutch, and the studies mentioned. Amounts are base tariffs per year; Buma/Stemra excluding VAT, Sena exempt from VAT and including the RAAP-PPI surcharge of 26.6%. Consulted on 22 September 2026. Also used doi 10.1177/002224298204600313, doi 10.1037/0021-9010.84.2.271, retaildetail.be, eb.live, bumastemra.nl, bumastemra.nl, ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2025:6175, mijnlicentie.nl.
What it costs with us
With us you pay one amount per location per month. With several branches you run them all from one dashboard, with its own mood for each store. The music is generated entirely by AI. Buma/Stemra itself says that such works without a human creative contribution do not qualify for payment. The same applies to Sena. Sena can only collect for a recording that has been commercially released, and on that ground Sena lost in court in 2025. The full reasoning is in our legal memorandum.
Between tracks you can feature your own offers, by time of day and by branch. On the hour, a local news round can play. It plays on the installation already on the ceiling, through the amplifier’s line-in or a browser. What we can and cannot verify about the training data of the model is also in the memorandum.
Read the legal reasoningWhy RadioMatic is something other than a playlist or the radio
A business owner who wants music on the premises usually picks from three things. A playlist from a streaming service, an ordinary radio station, or a royalty-free music package. This is where they differ.
| Playlist | Ordinary radio | Royalty-free | RadioMatic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New music | Fixed list | Yes, but not your choice | Limited catalogue | New every day |
| Music that is yours alone | No | No | No | Yes, your own hits |
| Fits the time of day | Switch it yourself | No | Switch it yourself | Automatic |
| Names your business | No | No | No | Yes |
| Your own offers | No | Only if you buy advertising | No | Yes, with Professional, no studio |
| Local news and weather | No | Yes, the station’s | No | Yes, with Professional, your town |
| Other people’s adverts | No | Yes | No | No |
| Several locations | Set up per location | No | Set up per location | Yes, from one place, each with its own mood |
| Buma/Stemra and Sena | Payable | Payable | See the terms | Not payable |
Questions about music in supermarkets
Further reading
- What does music in a shop cost in 2026?What music in a shop costs in Buma/Stemra and Sena fees, per square metre and per member of staff, with a calculator.
- What is retail radio or in-store radio, and what does it cost?Music plus voices per branch. Bespoke or a ready-made station, and which bills come with it.
- What is AI music in a shop, and what does it cost?How it sounds, what it costs against ordinary shop music, and what happens to the levies.
- Christmas and New Year music in your shop, what is allowed and what does it cost?Why old carols and Auld Lang Syne are not free, and how to get through the holidays without Buma and Sena.
Ready to hear it for yourself?
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