Background music for your co-working space, without Buma and Sena
RadioMatic gives your co-working space its own station with a different mood in the lounge than on the flex floor, and because the music is made entirely by AI no payments are due 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 coworking space?
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
Different music every Tuesday A co-working space sells a place where people are happy to sit all day, and the sound is part of that product. A hard floor with forty laptops sounds bare and echoes, and a soft layer of music under the conversations makes the space calmer. With RadioMatic that layer is generated rather than pulled from a fixed list. So your members do not hear the same running order back every Tuesday. For someone who sits here five days a week, that matters more than for a passer-by.
Messages for your members Do you now use a Slack channel and a blackboard to tell your members things? From now on that can go between the tracks as well. The DJ moments name your location and play what you type in yourself. Think of drinks in the lounge at five, the big meeting room being taken tomorrow or the new members who have just started. You need no studio and no hired voice for it. Want music only, then you switch off everything that speaks.
No competitor in your lounge On the hour a short news round can follow with the weather and the traffic, with only the subjects you pick yourself. Third-party advertising never comes in between. In a place full of freelancers and small teams that matters, because you do not want a competitor of your members advertising in your own lounge. With more locations you run them from a single dashboard. Each site keeps its own mood and announcements.
How do Buma and Sena charge a co-working space?
Charged per person At Buma/Stemra a flex office falls under the separate tariff for work spaces. That charges per person rather than per square metre. According to the tariff text a work space is a space the public does not enter and where staff work. For most co-working spaces that fits, because you come in as a member or by appointment.
An open coffee bar counts differently Do you have a coffee bar that anyone can walk straight into, or do you sell things to passers-by there? Then a different tariff can apply to that part of your building. We are not going to guess about that. Ask in writing and keep the answer.
Below three people you pay nothing Few operators know that below three people nothing is due. Mijnlicentie.nl names as a condition that three or more employees can hear the music, in non-public spaces. The lowest Sena bracket starts at exactly that point. A small room with two fixed workstations falls outside it, and we sell you nothing for that either.
Above that line in brackets Above that line, Buma/Stemra and Sena both charge in brackets by the number of people, with lines in different places. Move into the next bracket and the amount jumps up in one go. So it does not grow gradually with your occupancy.
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 | € 1,140 |
| Together per year | € 1,709 |
Sources: Buma/Stemra, work spaces tariff sheet BUM.411.26/01, the binding tariff text for work spaces BUM.132.26/01 with the definition of a work space, Sena, 2026 tariff overview, page 9, table Bedrijfsruimtes / kantoren / werkplaatsen, and mijnlicentie.nl, do I need a music licence for the three-employee threshold. The Buma scale runs by FTE up to 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200. The Sena scale starts at 3 and runs up to 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200. 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.
Which music works on the flex floor, and which in the lounge?
Calm on the flex floor On a flex floor someone writing a report sits next to someone on a call. Music does not make those two quiet, but it does make them disturb each other less. An even layer without peaks covers loose sounds, such as a drawer slamming shut or a conversation three desks away. That only works if the music itself asks for no attention. So little singing, no chorus that sticks and no sudden silences in which the space suddenly sounds bare.
Fuller and warmer in the lounge The lounge and the coffee bar ask for the opposite. People come there to be away from their screen for a moment and to talk to each other. Music that is fuller and warmer fits there, with a bit more tempo, so that it does not feel like a waiting room.
Fixed per zone and time Phone booths and quiet rooms stay empty, and in meeting rooms you usually want to hear something only during the break. Playing something different in each space rarely works in practice, because nobody has time at eleven to pick another list. With RadioMatic you fix it per zone and per part of the day, and then it runs by itself.
Members who come every day A co-working space also has its own kind of audience. Your members do not just walk past, they know your building inside out after a few months. What gives atmosphere on day one starts to grate by day sixty. With RadioMatic the music is generated and does not come from a catalogue. The style you have set stays put, and the tracks change.
On the installation already there
Sonos or a ceiling system In most co-working buildings something is already hanging. Sometimes that is a few Sonos speakers in the lounge, sometimes a ceiling system from the days when the building was still one company’s office. Both work. RadioMatic is a stream, so it plays on Sonos, on a Chromecast hanging off an amplifier, or into a 100-volt system through the line-in on your amplifier. A browser on a laptop behind the desk is also enough to get going.
A separate source per zone You put a separate source in each zone, so the lounge can play something different from the flex floor, and you run them all from the same dashboard. With more locations, those sit under one account with its own mood and announcements per building. 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 offices Look for music for your co-working space and you end up with suppliers who serve offices in general. Soundtrack names offices as a sector and bills per zone. Synerplay has a Dutch offering that is the same for every sector.
Two extra bills on top 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 in the Netherlands you need those two licences, and points to mijnlicentie.nl for them. What that costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic your flex floor gets a calm layer that covers the conversations and the keyboards, while the lounge and the coffee bar can be fuller and warmer. Phone booths and quiet rooms you simply leave empty. Between the tracks your members hear your own announcements, such as the drinks at five or which meeting room is taken tomorrow.
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 co-working space
Other kinds of business
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- Background music in your company restaurant, without Buma and SenaCompany restaurant and staff canteen
- Background music for your lunchroom, without Buma and SenaLunchroom and sandwich shop
- Background music for your hotel, without Buma and SenaBackground music for hotels
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