Background music for your showroom, without Buma and Sena
Looking for music for your car showroom? RadioMatic gives your showroom its own station that fills the silence in a large, hard space without running over the sales conversation. It runs on the system already in place. 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 showroom?
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
A large, quiet space A showroom is a large space with few people in it. On an ordinary Tuesday there are twelve cars on the floor and three customers walking around. Silence stands out there, and so does a list that plays in the same order every day. Your sales staff sit there from eight until six. With RadioMatic new music arrives every day in the style you pick. You keep the same sound, without the same tracks.
Your offers between the tracks Between the tracks the DJ moments name your business and the brand you carry. You put in yourself what is going on, about this month’s promotion models, the trade-in offer, Saturday’s used car day, the test drive without an appointment or how late the workshop is open. You type it in and it is there on the next round. Want music only, then you switch the voices off. Third-party advertising never comes in between, so no other brand is advertising in your showroom.
More sites or brands If you have more sites or more brands under one roof, you run them from a single dashboard. Each site keeps its own mood and messages. The waiting corner by the workshop can hear something other than the sales floor.
What does music in your showroom cost in Buma and Sena payments?
Ordinary shop category at Buma If you play music by human creators in your showroom, you get two bills, and they are based on two different things. Buma/Stemra charges by floor area. A showroom falls in the ordinary shop category there. The dearer category is for self-service businesses, supermarkets and department stores, and a business where salespeople guide customers does not belong in it. In the ordinary shop category you pay about half.
Sena charges per member of staff Sena charges that same showroom on the number of staff who can hear the music. As a result the two bills go up at different moments. If your showroom moves up a bracket, Buma goes up and Sena stays the same. If one colleague joins, the Sena bill can double while the floor stays the same size.
Workshop and waiting corner Sena charges the workshop separately, in a separate table. Buma adds showroom, workshop and waiting corner together when the same music from the same source plays there, and charges per space when it does not.
No fees for AI-made music With RadioMatic you pay nothing 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.
What the law and the court say The same applies to Sena. 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 | € 854 |
|---|---|
| Sena, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge | € 363 |
| Together per year | € 1,216 |
Sources: Buma/Stemra, mechanical background music, 2026 prices, Buma/Stemra, binding tariff text BUM.129.26/01, Sena, 2026 tariff overview, mijnlicentie.nl. Buma/Stemra charges a showroom in category B, because article 7 of BUM.129.26/01 lists shops in that category, with the exception of self-service businesses, supermarkets and department stores. In category A the same bracket costs twice as much. Sena charges the sales floor in the table Verkoopruimtes I (retail spaces I), general retail, which steps up at 5, 10, 25 and 50 FTEs, and the workshop in the table Bedrijfsruimtes, kantoren en werkplaatsen (business premises, offices and workshops), which starts from 3 FTEs. Article 8 of BUM.129.26/01 adds floor areas within one building together when the same music from the same sound source plays there, and charges for each space separately 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. Also used ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2025:6175.
What music works in a showroom of glass and steel?
Glass and steel throw sound back Glass, concrete, steel and lacquered bodywork throw everything back. In a showroom the sound rings on for a long time and the high notes turn sharp. Music with a lot of percussion and fast attacks turns to mush there. What does hold up is music with a calm tempo, few jumps in volume and a restrained low end. Play it at a volume that fills the space without bouncing back. Many small speakers at a low volume sound better here than a few loud ones.
Staying under the sales talk In this trade the sales conversation is about large amounts and takes a long time. Customer and salesperson sit at a table with a configurator between them, and sums are being done. The music belongs underneath that. You do not want someone to have to repeat a sentence halfway through a calculation. Vocals that ask for attention work against you here, certainly in a space where the sound already goes in all directions.
The waiting corner by the workshop In the waiting corner by the workshop sits a different customer in a different mood. They wait there for an hour for their car, with a cup of coffee. What fits there is closer to a waiting room than to a sales floor, calmer and more even. On a Saturday the showroom may sound a bit fuller and warmer than on a quiet weekday morning, and you set that by part of the day.
It works on the system already in place
Through the existing amplifier In a showroom of this size there is almost always a 100-volt system, with speakers high in the ceiling or on the structure, one amplifier and a transformer per speaker. That is built for long cable runs and many connections. RadioMatic goes in there through the line-in on the existing amplifier. You do not have to replace anything and no extra cable is needed. Sonos, Chromecast and a browser on the sales manager’s PC work too.
Workshop and floor separately The zones on that system stay as they are. If you want the workshop and the waiting corner to sound different from the floor, you put a separate source there and run everything from the same dashboard. With several sites every location gets its own mood under one account. 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 shops Look for music for your showroom and you end up with providers who serve shops in general. BCM Music Systems has a page for retail and names the showroom on it in so many words. Xenox supplies X-RADIO, with a soundboard for playing your own messages in the shop.
Rights partly left to you With both of them you play music by human creators. BCM says itself that it arranges the reproduction rights for you, and that you still have to arrange the public performance rights yourself. That fee depends on the number of square metres in which the music plays. Xenox says nothing about it itself. The Buma/Stemra and Sena bill therefore comes on top of your subscription. What it costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic the music fills your showroom without bouncing off glass and lacquer, and stays underneath the conversation at the table with the configurator. The customer who waits an hour for their car in the waiting corner, with a cup of coffee, gets a calmer mood of their own. Between the tracks they hear about Saturday’s used car day or the test drive without an appointment.
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 showroom
Other kinds of business
- Background music for your furniture store, without Buma and SenaFurniture store, home store and retail park
- Background music for your DIY store, without Buma and SenaDIY store and home improvement shop
- Background music for your clothing shop, without Buma and SenaBackground music for clothing shops
- Background music in your workshop, without Buma and SenaCar workshop and garage
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