Background music for your pharmacy, without Buma and Sena
Looking for background music for your pharmacy? RadioMatic gives you a station of your own for the public area. Soft, even music keeps the queue from listening in on the conversation at the counter, and between the tracks your customers hear your own announcements. Because the music is made with AI, 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 pharmacy?
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
Your counter notices, out loud In a pharmacy half your information hangs on a sheet of paper by the counter. Think of the opening hours around the holidays, that repeat prescriptions can be requested through the app, which pharmacy is on duty after closing time or that the flu jab week is coming up.
You type it, everyone hears it With RadioMatic you put those messages into the DJ moments between the tracks, in the voice you pick. You type them in yourself, without a studio or a recorded tape. People are standing and waiting in your public area, so they hear it too.
No brand ads through your ceiling Want music only, then you switch off everything that speaks. Local news on the hour can be on or off, and you pick the subjects yourself. Third-party advertising never comes in between. So no over-the-counter brand advertises through your ceiling speakers, and you never have to explain that to anyone.
No worn-out list for your assistants The music is generated and does not come from a fixed list. Your customer probably does not hear that in the four minutes they wait. Your assistants do, because they stand there all day. New music arrives every day in the same style, so the mood stays and it never becomes a worn-out list. The tracks that do well come back more often. With more than one pharmacy everything sits in one dashboard, with its own opening hours and its own announcements per location.
What does music in your pharmacy cost, and which tariff applies?
Your waiting area means category B The word pharmacy does not appear in the Buma/Stemra tariffs. A space that every pharmacy has does. The fixed category B list names waiting areas without a hospitality facility word for word. Your pharmacy has a public area where people wait, and so falls under category B. Where that waiting area stops and the shelf with over-the-counter products starts is not stated.
A higher bill from Sena At Sena it runs through the table Overige ruimtes (other spaces), and an honest note belongs with that. It is the only table in the overview without an explanation, so nowhere is it written what falls under it. It is the only general table left over when none of the others fit. So we are not writing here that Sena puts waiting areas under it in so many words. What surprises owners is that the Sena bill comes out higher here than the Buma/Stemra one.
Added together or charged per room If the public area and the preparation room play the same music from the same source, the floor areas are added together into one bracket. If the back plays something different from the front, charging is done per space.
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 | € 323 |
| Together per year | € 608 |
Sources: Buma/Stemra, mechanical background music, binding tariff text BUM.129.26/01, article 7 and article 8, Buma/Stemra, tariff sheet mechanical background music 2026, and Sena, 2026 tariff overview, page 15, table Overige ruimtes. Article 7 of BUM.129 is a closed list for category B in which “wachtruimten zonder horecavoorziening” (waiting areas without a hospitality facility) appears word for word. The category B scale runs by floor area up to 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,600 m², and above that per 1,600 m² more, and the Sena scale runs along the same lines. Article 8 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. Overige ruimtes is the only table in the Sena overview without an explanation. 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 at your pharmacy counter?
Privacy at the counter At the counter of a pharmacy people discuss things that are not meant for the queue behind them. Even sound at a soft level makes such a conversation harder to follow from a few metres away. That is a simple measure, alongside a well laid out counter.
No swings and no silences What works is music without sudden swings in volume and without silences between the tracks in which a conversation suddenly becomes clearly audible. A chart list with words you can make out does the opposite, because it asks for attention.
Waiting for medication calls for calm People in a pharmacy are not always having a good day either. Someone is waiting for medication for themselves or for someone else, and that is a different kind of waiting than in a shop. A calm tempo and a low volume are the safe choice there. It also means you do not have to let a news bulletin play every hour. With RadioMatic you set that on or off per zone.
Livelier in the back In the preparation room at the back it is different, because only your own people are there and they are there for eight hours. There the music can be a bit livelier than at the front. More about what plays in a waiting area is on music in waiting rooms.
Two zones on the equipment already in place
Nothing to buy You do not have to buy anything. If there is an amplifier with a few ceiling speakers in the public area, the stream goes into that system through the line-in. If there is a Sonos, it plays on Sonos. A browser on the computer behind the counter is enough to start, and a Chromecast on an existing set works too. We do not supply speakers and you do not need them from us either.
Each room its own mood You can set up the public area and the preparation room as two zones. Each zone gets its own mood and its own choice about whether anything is said. With music by human creators that split costs extra. As soon as each space plays different music, the floor areas are no longer added together and charging is done per space.
Same price, quick to set up With us the amount does not change. In a chain all the pharmacies sit under one account, with their own announcements per location. 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 healthcare in general Look for music for your pharmacy and you end up with suppliers who serve healthcare as a whole. Synerplay has a healthcare page for waiting rooms, practices and treatment rooms, and names GPs, dentists and physiotherapists. Mood Media supplies music and screens for waiting rooms in healthcare. Neither of them mentions the pharmacy.
Two extra bills on top And 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 buy those licences separately, directly from the rights organisations. What that costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic your pharmacy plays music that suits the public area, with your own announcements in between, such as your opening hours or an offer. If you have more than one branch, 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 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 pharmacy
Other kinds of business
- Music for your GP practice, without Buma and SenaFor GP practices
- Music for your practice, without Buma and SenaFor medical practices
- Background music for your optician’s shop, without Buma and SenaBackground music for opticians
- Music for your dental practice, without Buma and SenaFor dental practices
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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