Background music for your bakery, without Buma and Sena
RadioMatic gives your bakery its own station 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.
With RadioMatic from € 29.99 per location per month, without Buma and Sena. News and your own announcements with Professional. See all plans
What do you pay now for music in your bakery?
Three questions, and you see what you now spend on Buma/Stemra, Sena and your music service.
How big is your business?
What else you get
Two spaces, two start times 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.
Bakery and shop set separately 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 their hands having to go to a knob.
Announcing the bread of the week 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.
News on the hour 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 charges per square metre 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 counts your staff 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. Take on a sixth or an eleventh member of staff and you move up a bracket at Sena, even if your shop stays the same size.
The baking area counts at Buma 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.
No fees for AI-made music With RadioMatic no payment is due to Buma/Stemra or Sena, because the music is made entirely with AI. Buma/Stemra itself says that music made entirely by AI, without a creative contribution from a person, does not qualify for copyright or payment. The same applies to Sena.
What the law and the court say 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.
| 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. Also used ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2025:6175.
What music suits your bakery, from early morning to closing time?
Sounding awake in the early morning 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.
Calmer at the counter after ten 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 needs more body 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 separate zone with its own schedule, and the moment the shop opens nothing has to change at the back.
It runs on the speakers already in place
One stream for the shop 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.
The back of the bakery too 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 different schedule there with its own start time, you put a second source there and run both from the same dashboard.
Live within ten minutes With more branches every shop has its own settings under one account. You hear back within one working day, and after that your station is live in under ten minutes.
What you can choose from today
Suppliers for retail as a whole 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.
Licences still to pay With both of them the music is made and recorded by people, the royalty-free kind included. 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 its own schedule 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 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 |
Frequently asked questions about music in your bakery
Other kinds of business
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- Background music for your lunchroom, without Buma and SenaLunchroom and sandwich shop
- Background music for your pet shop, without Buma and SenaBackground music for specialist pet shops
- Background music for your bookshop, without Buma and SenaBackground music for bookshops
Background music for business. What is allowed, what does it cost and what are your options?
Ready to hear it for yourself?
Try RadioMatic free for 14 days. Your own station for your business, without Buma/Stemra and Sena, and cancel monthly if you pay monthly.
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