Background music for your hotel, without Buma and Sena
Looking for background music for your hotel? RadioMatic gives you a station of your own for the lobby, the breakfast room, the bar and the corridors. Each space gets a mood of its own, on the equipment already in place.
You easily pay
€ 2,764
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
A hotel that wants announcements of its own normally hires a studio and a voice for them. With RadioMatic they sit inside the station itself. Between the tracks the DJ moments name your hotel. They tell guests how late breakfast runs, that the spa is open until ten or that the terrace is open tonight. You type it in, and on the next round you hear it in the voice you picked. Want music only for a while, then you switch the voices off.
On the hour a short bulletin can follow with what is happening in your town, plus the weather and the traffic. For a lobby full of guests who do not know the town, that is more useful than one more playlist. You decide which subjects you want to hear and which you do not. Third-party advertising never comes in between, so no competitor advertises in your lobby.
With more than one location you run everything from a single dashboard. Each site keeps its own mood, its own announcements and its own opening hours. The music is made for your station rather than taken from a shared catalogue. So new music keeps arriving in the same style.
What does music in your hotel cost? The hospitality tariff, with the rooms billed separately
Buma/Stemra counts a hotel as hospitality. That is stated on their licensing page, and on mijnlicentie.nl Hotel sits under the sector Horeca (hospitality). That puts you in the most expensive category the two organisations have. At Sena the same floor also costs almost twice as much as at Buma.
How many square metres count depends on how you set things up. If the lobby, the breakfast room and the bar play the same music from the same source, the square metres are added together into one bracket. If the bar plays something different from the breakfast room, you pay per space. Whether the lobby itself falls under the hospitality tariff, neither organisation says in so many words. The hotel is classified as hospitality, but nothing is written down about the lobby as a separate space. If you want certainty about that, ask in writing and keep the answer.
Music to the rooms is a separate bill. That is called transmission. Buma/Stemra and Sena each have a tariff of their own for it, with a minimum amount per year. TV in the rooms does not fall under Buma or Sena, but under Videma. On mijnlicentie.nl you cannot work this out yourself for a hotel. You get a contact form with a phone number. The site only does the sum itself for a restaurant, café or snack bar.
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 | € 957 |
|---|---|
| Sena, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge | € 1,808 |
| Together per year | € 2,764 |
Sources: Buma/Stemra, hospitality, binding tariff text BUM.122.26/01, article 7, Buma/Stemra, central transmission 2026, Sena, 2026 tariff overview, Videma, hotels. For 200 m² playing the same music the Buma hospitality tariff is € 956.54 and the Sena tariff € 1,427.99 base, or € 1,807.83 with the RAAP-PPI surcharge of 26.6%. Article 7 of BUM.122 provides that floor areas are added together where the same music from the same source plays in different spaces. For transmission to the rooms Buma/Stemra charges a minimum of € 94.85 up to 50 connections and Sena € 97.65 base up to 50 rooms. Amounts per year, Buma/Stemra and Videma excluding VAT, Sena exempt from VAT. Details of other providers from their own sites, consulted on 22 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.
Which music fits where in your hotel?
A hotel is not one space with one audience. In the lobby music plays all day and everyone hears it, from the guest checking in to the receptionist who stands there for eight hours. What works there is music that fills the space without asking for attention. Soft enough to dampen a conversation at the desk, without drowning it out. In the breakfast room sits someone who woke up half an hour earlier than he wanted to. He wants a calm tempo, no heavy bass and no voices talking over his breakfast. In the bar it can get warmer and fuller after six. That is the moment guests stay seated.
Corridors, lifts and the spa ask for something else again. In a corridor a soft, steady flow fills the silence between the room doors. In the sauna or the treatment room something without rhythm that does not impose fits best. Meeting rooms and function rooms often need nothing during the session, and something during the break. With RadioMatic you set that per space from one dashboard. It changes by part of the day by itself, without anyone having to turn a knob.
A hotel guest also stays longer than a single visit. Someone who stays three nights hears your breakfast music on three mornings. If the same fifty tracks keep coming round, it stands out, to the guest and to your staff. RadioMatic’s music is made for your station and does not come from a catalogue you share with a thousand other businesses. New music keeps arriving in the same style, and what goes down well comes round more often. Between the tracks, DJ moments mention your hotel by name and announce breakfast times, the restaurant or the spa.
It works on the equipment already in place
You do not have to replace anything. RadioMatic is a stream, and it plays on what you use now. If you have Sonos, the stream plays on Sonos. If there is a Chromecast or a media player behind the desk, it plays on that. Many hotels have had a 100-volt system with speakers in the corridors and the lobby for years. In that case the stream goes into that system through the line-in on your amplifier. A browser on a PC or tablet is enough to start.
With a 100-volt system that usually means one connection to the existing amplifier. If that system has zones, you keep them. If you want something different in the bar than in the lobby, you put a source of its own there. You run both from the same dashboard. In a chain, every property has a mood of its own under one account. After your application is approved, usually within five working days, a station is live in ten minutes. The first fourteen days are free.
What you can choose from today
Look for music for your hotel and you find two suppliers with a hotel page of their own. Backsound offers a subscription with or without its own music computer. You control it per space, for lobby, restaurant, bar, spa and fitness, and remotely through an app. Soundtrack has a Dutch page for hotels, charges per zone per month and gives each zone a music library of its own.
With both of them you play music by human creators, and that comes with Buma/Stemra and Sena. Backsound writes that the Buma and Sena rights are included in the subscription, and says in the question list on its own site that you as the business owner remain responsible for the public performance licence. Soundtrack says itself that those licences are not part of the subscription and that you arrange them separately, and points to Buma/Stemra and Sena for that. What that costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic your hotel gets a mood of its own in each space, calm in the breakfast room, soft in the corridors and the spa, and warmer in the bar once the evening starts. Between the tracks your guests hear how late breakfast runs or when the spa is open, and on the hour the weather in your town. If you have more than one hotel, you run them all from one account.
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.
Frequently asked questions about music in your hotel
Other kinds of business
- Background music for your lunchroom, without Buma and SenaLunchroom and sandwich shop
- Background music for your restaurant, without Buma and SenaBackground music for restaurants
- Background music for your fast food outlet, without Buma and SenaFast food and chain outlets
- Background music for your clothing shop, without Buma and SenaBackground music for clothing shops
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.