Background music for your wellness centre, without Buma and Sena
RadioMatic gives every space in your wellness centre its own mood, with your announcements at reception and music only in the sauna. 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 wellness centre?
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
No voice in the sauna In a wellness centre what matters most is what you switch off. In the sauna garden, the steam room and the relaxation room you do not want to hear a voice promoting your business. In the dashboard you switch off everything that speaks there, space by space. What is left is music that runs on without interruption, without announcements and without news. That is a setting, and you can set it differently per zone.
Messages at reception and restaurant At reception, in the food and drink corner and in the changing room you do have something to say. The DJ moments name your centre. They tell guests that the sauna infusions are on the hour, that the restaurant serves hot dishes until nine or which package is running this month. You type it in and you hear it on the next round. Third-party advertising comes in nowhere. So no other brand hangs in your quiet room.
Guests stay half a day The music is generated and does not come from a fixed list. That weighs more heavily here than in a place where someone is inside for twenty minutes. A guest stays half a day, and your masseurs, hosts and sauna masters are there all day. New music in the same style arrives every day. So the mood stays the same, and nobody hears the same track for the third time that afternoon. With more than one location everything sits in one dashboard, with its own settings per location.
Which tariff does a wellness centre pay, with and without hospitality?
Category B without hospitality At Buma/Stemra a wellness centre falls under the tariff for mechanical background music, in category B. That category is a closed list. Swimming and sauna baths and sports spaces “zonder horecavoorziening” (without a hospitality facility) are in it word for word. Note those Dutch words, because your whole classification hangs on them. At Sena wellness has its own table, for changing rooms, solaria, saunas, spas and relaxation rooms.
A restaurant makes it hospitality If you also have a restaurant or a cafeteria, that part is hospitality. Hospitality is the most expensive tariff there is, and Sena sends you to the hospitality tariffs for that part. What then happens to the rest of the building is written out in neither text. We are not filling that in here. Ask in writing and keep the answer.
Adding up or paying per space For the spaces without hospitality, what counts is how you set the music up. If the sauna, the changing rooms and the hall play the same music from the same source, the floor areas are added together into one bracket. If every zone plays something different, you pay for each space separately.
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 | € 569 |
|---|---|
| Sena, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge | € 479 |
| Together per year | € 1,048 |
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 suits the sauna, the relaxation room and the changing room?
No sharp sounds in the sauna A sauna room and a steam cabin have hard walls and little that absorbs sound. Anything with a sharp attack comes out doubled. Music without a pronounced rhythm and without sudden swings in volume stays in the background there. Singing with words you can make out asks to be listened to, and that is exactly what guests are not doing there. The same goes for the relaxation room. People just lie still there for longer, so a list that keeps coming round stands out sooner.
Livelier in the changing room The changing rooms and the walkways are different. People talk there, change clothes and pass each other. The music can be a bit livelier there, as long as it fits with the rest of the building. In a treatment room the music stays under the conversation, so softer and calmer in tempo than in the rest of the building. At reception and in the food and drink corner it can be fuller again. That is where people arrive and wake up again.
Set per zone With RadioMatic you set that per zone from one dashboard. It can change by itself with the part of the day, without anyone standing at a knob. Per zone you also decide whether anything is said at all.
It runs on the installation already in place
Damp-proof speakers stay in place You do not have to replace anything. A wellness centre often already has a 100-volt system with zones, with speakers that can take damp and heat. Those stay in place. The stream goes into the system through the line-in on your existing amplifier, and you keep the zones you have now. Sonos, a Chromecast or a browser on the computer behind reception work just as well.
A separate source per zone If you want something different in each space, you put a separate source in each zone. You run everything from the same dashboard. With music by human creators that choice costs money. As soon as different music plays in each space, the adding up into one bracket falls away and Buma/Stemra charges per space.
One slider in the dashboard With RadioMatic that is one slider in the dashboard. 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 wellness Look for music for your wellness centre and you find a few suppliers with a page for your sector. Synerplay has a page for wellness and spa. BCM Music Systems has a wellness page with controls per zone for massage rooms, sauna and lounge. Mood Media runs beauty and wellness as a sector.
Two bills there as well With Synerplay and BCM you are playing music by human creators. That means two extra bills, from Buma/Stemra and from Sena. BCM says itself that they arrange the first part of the music rights, and that you arrange the licences at Buma/Stemra and Sena yourself, based on the floor area where the music plays. What that costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic you let calm music run on its own in the sauna, the steam room and the relaxation room, with no voice in between. At reception, in the changing room and in the food and drink corner you do hear your own announcements, such as the times of the sauna infusions or this month’s package. You set every zone separately, and it changes by itself with the part of the day.
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 wellness centre
Other kinds of business
- Background music for your swimming pool, without Buma and SenaSwimming pools and swim centres
- Background music for your hotel, without Buma and SenaBackground music for hotels
- Background music for your beauty salon, without Buma and SenaBackground music for beauty salons
- Music for your yoga studio, without Buma and SenaBackground music for yoga studios
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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