Background music for your bookshop, without Buma and Sena
RadioMatic gives your bookshop its own station that stays quiet enough to read in, with your own announcements between the tracks, 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 bookshop?
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
Signings and reading groups announced A bookshop always has something to announce. An author is coming to sign, the reading group meets next Tuesday, the new translation is at the front, and from the middle of November it is gift season for two months. At the moment that hangs on a sheet of paper by the door. With RadioMatic the DJ moments say it between the tracks, naming your shop, in the voice you pick. You type the text in and it is there on the next round. You do not need a studio or a voice actor for it.
News, but no adverts On the hour a short bulletin can follow with local news, the weather and the traffic, and you decide which subjects come up in it. Third-party advertising never comes in between with us anyway, so no commercial plays for an online shop selling the same book more cheaply. Want everything that speaks switched off during a talk or a signing, then that is one slider.
Almost never one space A bookshop of 300 m² is almost never one space. There is a children’s section where it can be louder, a literature corner where people stand still reading and often a second floor or a reading table.
Every corner its own mood With RadioMatic you give every corner its own mood from one dashboard, and with more branches every shop keeps its own settings under one account. The music is also generated rather than pulled from a fixed list, which matters most for the bookseller who stands in it five days a week.
Why does Sena not look at the floor of a bookshop?
Sena counts people, not metres Buma/Stemra charges a bookshop under the shop category and looks only at your floor area, in brackets. Sena charges the same shop as general retail, and there square metres do not count. Sena counts the staff who hear the music. So a large shop with few people pays little at Sena. Take on more staff and the Sena bill goes up, even if your shop stays the same size.
Several floors, one choice If you have several floors, one choice decides what you pay. If the same music from the same source plays everywhere, the floor areas are added together into one bracket. If the children’s section plays something different from downstairs, you pay for each space separately.
Two spaces and a coffee corner Two spaces that each land in the next bracket up cost more together than your whole floor in one bracket. If you have a coffee corner where people drink something on the spot, the hospitality tariff can apply to that part instead of the shop tariff. Ask about that in writing and keep the answer.
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 | € 569 |
|---|---|
| Sena, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge | € 363 |
| Together per year | € 932 |
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 a bookshop?
Customers stand and read A bookshop is the only shop where customers stand and read. Someone trying the first page of a novel reads it with a voice in their head, and a song with an intelligible lyric goes straight through that.
Few vocals, a flat volume That is why music without prominent vocals works better in a bookshop than the radio. And music with a flat volume curve works better than something that spikes every minute and a half. What you want is a sound that fills the quiet of the building without having an opinion of its own.
Not as quiet as a library At the same time a bookshop should not sound like a library. Complete silence turns every conversation at the till into a public announcement, and every footstep on the stairs into an event. A soft, continuous layer makes the building calmer rather than quieter. In the children’s section it can be half a step brighter and a little louder, because there is already talking, running and reading aloud going on there.
Fuller and warmer in December In December the shop changes character. It fills up, people are looking for presents instead of something for themselves, and there is almost always a queue at the wrapping table. The music can become a good deal fuller and warmer then, for six weeks, and go back afterwards.
Fresh tracks for six weeks With RadioMatic you set that per period and per part of the day, and because the music is generated rather than pulled from a fixed list your staff do not hear the same track twenty times in those six weeks.
It runs on the installation already in place
Your speakers and zones stay RadioMatic is a stream and it comes in on what you use now. In a bookshop of 300 m² there is usually an amplifier with ceiling speakers already, often with two or three zones. Those stay as they are. The stream goes into the system through the line-in and you keep the zones you have. If there is only a Sonos by the till or a Chromecast on the installation, it plays on that. A browser on the PC behind the counter is enough to start.
A separate mood per floor If you want a different mood in the children’s section or on the first floor, you put a separate source there and set both from the same dashboard. For the reading table you can keep the volume lower or switch off everything that speaks. 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 all of retail Look for music for your bookshop and you end up with suppliers who serve retail as a whole. Synerplay supplies a business music service and names boutiques, supermarkets and department stores. IMPAQT Media supplies background music for shops, with its own box that connects to your sound installation.
Two extra bills With both of them you are playing music by human creators. That means two extra bills, from Buma/Stemra and from Sena. Synerplay says itself that you arrange those two licences yourself, directly with those organisations through mijnlicentie.nl. What that costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic you keep the literature corner and the reading table soft, while the children’s section can be brighter and a little louder. Between the tracks you announce the signing or the reading group, and for December you set a fuller, warmer mood. During a talk you switch off everything that speaks.
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 bookshop
Other kinds of business
- Background music for your clothing shop, without Buma and SenaBackground music for clothing shops
- Background music for your furniture store, without Buma and SenaFurniture store, home store and retail park
- Background music for your optician’s shop, without Buma and SenaBackground music for opticians
- Background music for your pet shop, without Buma and SenaBackground music for specialist pet shops
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.
Rather talk first? Book a 15-minute call