Background music in the car park, without Buma and Sena
If you manage a car park of 2,000 m², you pay Buma/Stemra and Sena € 2,221.87 per year between them for music that sells nothing. With RadioMatic you pay nothing to Buma/Stemra, because the music is made entirely by AI, and nothing to Sena either.
You easily pay
€ 2,222
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 car park the music does not have to sell anything. It is there for the person walking to their car alone between two concrete columns at half past ten at night. In a silent, empty car park every footstep becomes an event. A soft, continuous layer of sound takes the edge off that. That is what it is about, and that is why there is no third-party advertising in it and no broadcaster that changes tone every fifteen minutes.
Between the music you place your own messages, about the closing time, how the payment machine works, where the charging bays are, which exit is closed this week or how to walk to the town centre. You type it in and it is there on the next round, in the voice you pick. For an announcement that cannot wait, your own microphone keeps working.
If you manage more car parks, they sit under one account. You set per location what plays, at what times and with which messages. A car park under a shopping centre can hear something other during the day than a park and ride site on the edge of town.
What does music in a car park cost in Buma and Sena payments?
For a car park it is clearly set out. Buma/Stemra names car parks literally in the favourable category, alongside petrol stations, waiting areas without a hospitality facility and swimming pools and saunas among others. Buma charges by floor area, and above the highest bracket the tariff keeps stepping up.
Sena has a table of its own for car parks, also by the square metre. What surprises managers is that Sena comes out higher than Buma here, while in most trades it is the other way round. Watch what counts as well. Both look at the space in which the music can be heard. If your stream also plays in the stairwells, by the lifts, in the entrance hall and along the walking routes, those metres count. If your car park sits under a shopping centre or a DIY store, it is not obvious which space belongs to which operation. Put that layout to them in writing and keep the answer.
With RadioMatic you pay nothing 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 | € 996 |
|---|---|
| Sena, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge | € 1,226 |
| Together per year | € 2,222 |
Sources: Buma/Stemra, mechanical background music, 2026 prices, Buma/Stemra, binding tariff text BUM.129.26/01, article 7 and article 8, Sena, 2026 tariff overview, car parks on p. 9, mijnlicentie.nl. Article 7 of BUM.129.26/01 names car parks in so many words in the list for category B, and above the highest bracket a surcharge is added for every 1,600 m² or part thereof. Sena charges in its own table for car parks on page 9 of the tariff overview, which likewise charges by the square metre and which, with the RAAP-PPI surcharge, comes out above the Buma amount. Article 8 of BUM.129.26/01 adds floor areas within one building or establishment together when the same music from the same sound source plays there, and provides that separate payment is due for each of those spaces when different music plays. Amounts per year, 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 works in a concrete car park?
A car park has not a single surface that absorbs sound. Concrete above, concrete below, concrete to the side, and between them cars of sheet steel and glass. The sound rings on for a few seconds, and everything you put into it keeps ringing round. Music with a lot of bass turns into a thud without a note there, and fast percussion turns into rattling. What holds up is something calm with little low end, soft attacks and few jumps in volume. In a space like that, it is the only music that still sounds like music.
Then the volume. In a car park you do not want the music to stand out, and certainly not to drown out an approaching car or a voice. So the level is low and above all even. Every silence in which someone suddenly hears their own footsteps does the opposite of what you want. Peaks in volume are more disturbing here than in any other space. On the walking routes, by the lifts and in the stairwells the sound may sit a little closer than on the parking deck itself.
And then the difference between day and night. A car park under a shopping centre is a thoroughfare full of people during the day and an empty concrete floor in the evening. That calls for different music. With RadioMatic you set that by part of the day and it happens by itself, without anyone having to go to the plant room.
It works on your existing announcement and evacuation system
A car park always has a 100-volt system, and usually that is also the announcement and evacuation system. One amplifier feeds dozens of speakers over hundreds of metres of cable, each with a transformer of its own, spread over decks and zones. The speakers are built for damp and temperature swings. RadioMatic goes in through the line-in on that existing amplifier. No speaker has to be moved and no extra cable is needed. If your control room works with a Sonos, a Chromecast or simply a browser on a PC, the stream plays on that too.
Nothing changes about the priority. Your announcement microphone cuts over the music, and on an alarm the evacuation system interrupts whatever is playing and puts the evacuation message on. To that system RadioMatic is only the source, just like the internet radio or the CD player on it now. The zone layout stays as it is, so deck minus one, deck minus two, the entrance hall and the walking routes each keep their own volume. After your application is approved, usually within five working days, a station is live in ten minutes. The first fourteen days are free to try.
What you can choose from today
Look for music for a car park and you mainly end up with installation companies. PTH Groep ties announcements and background music to the evacuation system, so that in an emergency all music and all announcements stop at once. SPIE describes the same set-up at the P+R garage Noorderhelling in Rotterdam.
What gets connected to such a system is usually an internet radio or a music service, and then you are playing music by human creators. Neither company says anything about the levies, because you arrange those yourself as the operator. The Buma/Stemra and Sena bill therefore comes on top of what you pay for music and installation. What it costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic your car park gets a soft, even layer of music, so that whoever walks to their car alone at half past ten at night does not hear every footstep echo. During the day, when the car park under the shopping centre is full of people, it sounds different by itself. Between the music your visitors hear where the charging bays are and which exit is closed this week.
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
- Background music in your office, without Buma and SenaBackground music for offices
- Background music for your co-working space, without Buma and SenaCo-working and flex offices
- Background music in your workshop, without Buma and SenaCar workshop and garage
- Background music in your company restaurant, without Buma and SenaCompany restaurant and staff canteen
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.