Background music for your bakery, without Buma and Sena
RadioMatic gives your bakery a station of its own that already sounds different at half past six from half past ten, with your own offers in between, and you pay nothing to Buma/Stemra and Sena.
You easily pay
€ 647
a year to Buma/Stemra and Sena
If you play music in your business, this bill is compulsory. The amount is the base rate for the worked example below, and your music subscription comes on top of it.
Work out what you pay nowWith RadioMatic you pay
€ 29.99
per location per month, billed yearly
= € 360 a year, everything included
The Starter plan, excluding VAT. No payment is due to Buma/Stemra or Sena, so this is the whole amount. There is a free plan as well.
Fourteen days free to try. Monthly billing is available and costs 20% more, and only then can you cancel monthly. Once your application is approved, usually within five working days, your station is live in ten minutes.
What else you get
In a bakery the day starts twice. At the back someone is at the oven from about five, and at the front the door opens at half past seven. Those two spaces have nothing in common but the building. With RadioMatic you set them separately from one dashboard, with something in the bakery to keep the early shift awake and something at the front that does not startle the first customers of the day. That changes by itself per part of the day, without anyone with flour on his hands having to go to a knob.
Between the tracks the DJ moments name your bakery and say what you want said. The bread of the week, that there are sausage rolls again on Saturday, that Christmas orders can be placed until the fifteenth. That is exactly the sort of message that now sits on a chalkboard nobody reads when four people are in the queue. You type it in and it is there on the next round, in the voice you pick. You do not need a studio or a voice actor for it.
On the hour local news can follow with the weather and the traffic, and that fits a shop where people come in at eight before they go to work. You choose which subjects are in it yourself. Third-party advertising never comes in between, so the bakery counter in the supermarket round the corner is not advertising in your shop. And with more branches you run them from one dashboard while every shop keeps its own mood and its own opening hours.
Why does a small bakery pay so much to Sena?
Buma/Stemra charges a bakery shop under the shop category, per square metre. With a small shop you stay in the lowest bracket. Do watch your seats. If people drink their coffee at a table in your shop, the hospitality tariff can apply to that part instead of the shop tariff. That is a different and higher scale. Ask about it in writing before you file a declaration.
Sena charges per member of staff who hears the music. A bakery has a lot of people on few metres. With an early shift and a shop rota you move up a bracket before you know it. That is how a bakery ends up paying Sena twice as much as a clothing shop nearly twice its size with four sales staff. One organisation counts your floor, the other your staff. For the baking area Buma/Stemra adds the floor areas together into one bracket, as long as the same music from the same source is playing there. If a different source goes on there, you pay for that space separately.
With RadioMatic no payment is due to Buma/Stemra or Sena, because the music is generated entirely by AI and there are therefore no rights holders. Buma/Stemra itself states that works made entirely by AI without a human creative contribution do not qualify for copyright or payment. The same applies to Sena. The law requires a phonogram released for commercial purposes, and on that ground Sena lost in court in 2025. The full reasoning is in our legal memorandum.
| Buma/Stemra | € 285 |
|---|---|
| Sena, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge | € 363 |
| Together per year | € 647 |
Sources: Buma/Stemra, mechanical background music, binding tariff text BUM.129.26/01, article 7 and article 8, and Sena, 2026 tariff overview, page 8, table Verkoopruimtes I, algemene detailhandel. The category B scale runs by floor area up to 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,600 m². The Sena scale runs by staff up to 5, 10, 25 and 50. Article 8 of BUM.129 provides that floor areas are added together where the same music from the same source plays in different spaces, and that you pay for each space separately where different music plays. Amounts per year and base tariff, Buma/Stemra excluding VAT, Sena exempt from VAT and here including the RAAP-PPI surcharge of 26.6%. Details of other providers from their own sites, consulted on 23 September 2026.
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 music suits your bakery, from early morning to closing time?
Between seven and nine it is busy with people in a hurry. They buy two loaves, they pay and they are gone. The music does not have to hold anyone there, but it does have to make the shop sound awake. A little too slow and it feels as if you are not open yet, a little too firm and it clashes with a customer who has just got out of bed. A medium tempo, warm in tone and without hard bass, fits what happens there.
After ten the shop changes. Then come the people who have time, who ask what is fresh today and who start a conversation at the counter. Something calmer fits that, at a lower volume. Over a counter a metre and a half wide the music does not have to compete with a conversation. Towards closing time, when the shelves are emptying and the cleaning is being done, it can become a bit more ordinary again for the staff still standing there.
The baking area at the back is a factory. A proving cabinet runs, a mixer starts, a tray drops on a rack and an extractor roars. Music that is fine at the front disappears completely there. What works there is something with more body and a steady rhythm at a higher volume, and it starts hours earlier than the shop. With RadioMatic that is a zone of its own with a schedule of its own, and the moment the shop opens nothing has to change at the back.
It runs on the speakers already in place
You do not need new equipment. RadioMatic is a stream. In the shop that is usually one or two speakers above the counter on a small amplifier, and the stream goes in there through the line-in. If there is a Sonos or a Chromecast, it plays on that. A browser on the PC in the back office or on a tablet behind the counter is enough to start.
At the back in the bakery there is often a simple radio already or a set of speakers that can take heat and flour. That stays where it is and only what comes out of it changes. If you want a schedule of its own there with a start time of its own, you put a second source there and run both from the same dashboard. With more branches every shop has its own settings under one account. After your application is approved, usually within five working days, your station is live in ten minutes. The first fourteen days are free.
What you can choose from today
Look for music for your bakery and you end up with suppliers who serve retail as a whole. Backsound has a separate page about royalty-free music for shops. Synerplay supplies a music service for Dutch retail.
With both of them the music is made and recorded by people, the royalty-free kind included. So you depend on the terms of the catalogue behind it. Synerplay says itself that in the Netherlands you need two licences to play music commercially, from Buma/Stemra and from Sena. You arrange those separately from the subscription through mijnlicentie.nl. What that costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic the baking area runs on a schedule of its own with more rhythm from five in the morning, while the front stays calm for the first customers at half past seven. After ten the shop turns quieter by itself, for the people who have time for a chat at the counter. Between the tracks your customer hears the bread of the week or until when the Christmas orders can be placed.
Why 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 no studio |
| Local news and weather | No | Yes, the station’s | No | Yes, your town, your choice of topics |
| Other people’s adverts | No | Yes | No | No |
| Buma/Stemra and Sena | Payable | Payable | See the terms | Not payable |
New music every day
The station keeps getting new tracks in the same style, because the music is generated rather than drawn from a fixed list. A track that lands well with your audience comes round more often, and then it is your hit. It was made for your station and plays nowhere else.
It names your business
Between the tracks, DJ voices announce what is going on at your place. Your offer, your opening hours, this week’s deal. That used to need a studio and a voice actor.
It moves with the day
The morning, the rush and the last hour each call for something different. That is set per part of the day and happens by itself, with nobody behind the counter picking a new list.
Local news if you want it
A short bulletin on the hour about your own town, with the weather and the traffic alongside. You choose which subjects you want, or you switch it off entirely.
No one else’s advertising
On an ordinary station the business down the road advertises in between your tracks. With us, nothing comes in between that is not yours.
Every location from one screen
Each site keeps its own mood, its own promotions and its own opening hours, and you run them all from the same place.
A playlist is worn out within two weeks, and on an ordinary station the business down the road advertises in between your tracks. With us the station is yours. Your style, your announcements, and the tracks that land with your audience come round more often.
Questions that come with this
Other kinds of business
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- Background music for your furniture store, without Buma and SenaFurniture and home store
- Background music for your showroom, without Buma and SenaCar showroom and dealership
- Background music for your garden centre, without Buma and SenaGarden centre and plant centre
Ready to hear it for yourself?
Request access to the beta. Your own station for your business, 14 days free trial, and monthly cancellation if you pay monthly.