Playing music without Buma/Stemra and Sena
It is possible, and there are three routes. Public domain music, music whose authors do not use collective management, and music with no human author. Only the last one rules the bill out entirely; with the first two the burden of proof sits with you, and it is heavier than it looks.
Route 1: public domain
Work whose term of protection has expired is free to use. That sounds simple, but it runs aground on a detail: the composition may be free of rights, the recording usually is not.
A performance of Bach from 2019 is a commercially released phonogram with a performing artist on it. Sena does have a basis there, even though the composer died centuries ago.
Route 2: music outside collective management
There are authors who have not joined a collecting society and license their work themselves. That exists and it is legitimate.
The practice is harder. You have to be able to show per track that the author is not affiliated, and that changes if they join after all. At an inspection you are the one who has to substantiate that, not they.
Route 3: no human author
Copyright arises with a human creation. Without a composer and without a lyricist there is no work on which Buma/Stemra could collect on anyone’s behalf.
Neighbouring rights arrive at the same place: Article 7 of the Dutch Neighbouring Rights Act requires a commercially released phonogram with a performance by a performing artist. With music generated in real time both are absent.
This is the only route where no rights holder exists who could come forward later. With the other two there is an author; you are simply betting that they are not represented. How that works technically is set out in AI music for business.
Tariffs: Buma/Stemra and Sena, tariff year 2026. 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.
Where RadioMatic sits
On route 3. The music comes from a generative model, is compiled in real time and has never been released. No composer, no lyricist, no performing artist, no phonogram producer.
The full reasoning is published as a memorandum on the site, with the articles from the Dutch Copyright Act and the Neighbouring Rights Act, and with what we cannot verify ourselves stated honestly.
Read the legal reasoningQuestions that come with this
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