Background music for your swimming pool, without Buma and Sena
RadioMatic gives your swimming pool its own station on the installation already in place, with its own mood per zone and with priority for the public address. 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 swimming pool?
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
Music that follows the timetable A swimming pool runs on a timetable, and the music can follow that timetable. Lane swimming in the early morning, lessons in the afternoon, recreational swimming at the weekend and a disco swim on Friday evening each ask for something different. With RadioMatic you set that per part of the day and it switches over by itself. So the lifeguard at the poolside does not have to go looking for another list halfway through a shift.
Notices about slide and wave pool Your announcements go into the DJ moments. For instance that the wave pool starts on the half hour, that the slide is open from two, that the pool closes in a quarter of an hour or that the swimming lessons carry on during the autumn holidays.
Quiet during swimming lessons You type it into the dashboard and you hear it on the next round, in the voice you pick. During lessons you switch off everything that speaks, because then the pool attendant has to be the only thing you hear. Your public address system keeps working as it is, and RadioMatic plays alongside it.
No advertising through the speakers Third-party advertising never comes in between. At a municipal pool or a foundation that saves a discussion about what may and may not go through the speakers. You switch local news on the hour on where it fits, in the café or the hall for instance, and off above the pool. If you run more than one pool, they sit in the same dashboard with settings of their own per location.
Which tariff does a swimming pool fall under?
Category B without hospitality At Buma/Stemra a swimming pool falls under the tariff for mechanical background music, in category B. That category is a closed list, and swimming and sauna baths “zonder horecavoorziening” (without a hospitality facility) are in it in so many words. Note those Dutch words. At Sena the pool falls under the table for wellness. That table names changing rooms alongside sauna, spa and solarium.
A cafeteria counts as hospitality If your pool has a cafeteria or a restaurant, that part is hospitality. Hospitality is the most expensive tariff there is, and Sena sends you to the hospitality tariffs for that part. What happens to the rest of the building after that is written out nowhere. Ask about it in writing and keep the answer.
Poolside, changing rooms and hall together For the rest, what counts is the floor area where the music can be heard, and at a pool that is more than the water alone. If the poolside, the changing rooms and the hall play the same music from the same source, those floor areas are added together into one bracket. If the changing rooms play something different from what is above the pool, 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 | € 711 |
|---|---|
| Sena, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge | € 760 |
| Together per year | € 1,472 |
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 16, table Wellness. Article 7 of BUM.129 is a closed list naming swimming and sauna baths, sports spaces without a hospitality facility and waiting areas without a hospitality facility. 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. 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. The note under the Sena Wellness table points to the hospitality tariffs on page 4 for the hospitality part. 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.
What music works in a pool hall full of echo?
Echo from tiles and water Acoustically a swimming pool is the hardest space there is. Tiles, glass and water throw back almost everything, and what comes back lags behind what goes out. Music with a lot of low tones and hard attacks hangs in that echo. It becomes a mush in which nobody can still make out a track. What does come through is music with little change in volume, little heavy bass and a calm build.
The lifeguard comes first On top of that, the music is never the most important voice in the space. A call from the lifeguard always has to carry over it, at the far end of the pool as well. So set the music low enough to leave room, so the public address does not have to fight the volume. During lessons the simplest choice is no music in that zone. With RadioMatic you set that per zone and per part of the day.
Livelier in hall and changing rooms The rest of the building asks for something else. In the hall and at the desk the music can be more present, in the changing rooms a bit livelier. At a recreational afternoon or a disco swim the pool itself takes on a completely different mood from a Tuesday morning of lane swimming. You do not need a second subscription or a second licence for that.
Your existing installation stays in place
Speakers that cope with chlorine A swimming pool has speakers that can take damp, chlorine and changing temperatures. They usually sit on a 100-volt system with zones, with a public address input that takes priority over the music. That installation stays in place.
Public address keeps priority The RadioMatic stream goes into the system through the line-in on your existing amplifier, and the priority switching of the public address carries on doing what it did. We do not supply speakers or amplifiers, and you do not need them from us either.
A separate source per zone If you want something different per zone, you put a separate source in each zone and run everything from the same dashboard. In practice that is a small player or a browser by the amplifier cabinet. If you run several pools, they sit together in one account with settings of their own per pool. You hear back within one working day, and after that your station is live in under ten minutes.
What you can choose from today
Mostly installers for pools Look for music for your swimming pool and you mostly end up with installers. Koster AVL supplies chlorine-resistant speakers and public address systems in which the speaker takes priority over the music. IMPRO designs sound systems with separate zones for changing rooms, slides and the pool.
Choosing the music separately What comes out of those speakers is a separate choice. Of the music suppliers we checked, not one has a page for swimming pools. So you end up with a general business subscription playing music by human creators. The Buma/Stemra and Sena bills come on top of that. What that costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic every zone in your pool gets its own mood, from the changing rooms and the slide to the subtropical pool and the lanes. It changes by itself with the part of the day, calm for baby swimming and different again for seniors swimming. You run all your zones and all your locations from one dashboard.
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 swimming pool
Other kinds of business
- Background music for your wellness centre, without Buma and SenaWellness centres, sauna and spa
- Music for your gym, without Buma and SenaBackground music for gyms
- Background music for your hotel, without Buma and SenaBackground music for hotels
- Music for your dance school, without Buma and SenaMusic for dance schools
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