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 makes conversations at the counter harder to follow, and between the tracks your customers hear your own announcements. The music is made entirely by AI, so Buma/Stemra charges nothing for it.
You easily pay
€ 608
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 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. 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.
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.
The music is generated and does not come from a fixed list. Your customer probably does not hear that in the four minutes he waits. Your assistants do, because they stand there all day. New music arrives every day in the same style, so the mood stays and nobody hears the same record for the third time that week. 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?
The word pharmacy does not appear in the Buma/Stemra tariffs. A space does. The fixed category B list names waiting areas without a hospitality facility word for word. That is a space and not a type of business, and that is what matters here. 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.
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.
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.
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 | € 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.
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 works at your pharmacy 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. 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.
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.
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
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.
You can set up the public area and the preparation room as two zones. Each zone gets a mood of its own 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. With us the amount does not change. In a chain all the pharmacies sit under one account, with their own announcements per location. 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 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.
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 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 pharmacy
Other kinds of business
- Music for your practice. Waiting room and treatment rooms for one amountFor medical practices
- Background music for your hotel, without Buma and SenaBackground music for hotels
- Background music for your lunchroom, without Buma and SenaLunchroom and sandwich shop
- 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.