Background music in your workshop, without Buma and Sena
RadioMatic gives your workshop a station of its own that carries over the sound of the lift and the impact wrench without wearing your mechanics out by the end of the day.
You easily pay
€ 427
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 workshop the radio is on all day, and everyone listens along whether they want to or not. Usually that is one station that one person once picked, with ten-minute ad breaks and a news bulletin nobody is waiting for. With RadioMatic you pick the style once and get new music in that style every day. Third-party advertising never comes in between. So a spot for the garage down the road or for a tyre chain never plays through your own speakers.
What can come in between is up to you. The DJ moments name your business and play your own announcements. Think of the MOT schedule being full until next week, the parts arriving at eleven or the toolbox meeting on Tuesday. You type it in and you hear it on the next round, in the voice you pick. Local news and the weather on the hour are possible too, with only the subjects you tick yourself. Want music only, then you switch the voices off.
With more locations, or a workshop with a body repair shop next door, you run everything from a single dashboard with a mood of its own per site. The shop floor and reception can play something different as well. The customer waiting for his car at the desk wants to hear something other than the mechanic at the lift.
When does your workshop pay Buma and Sena?
First the answer for most small workshops. Below three employees nothing is due. Mijnlicentie.nl names as a condition that three or more employees can hear the music, in non-public spaces such as canteens, warehouses and offices. The Sena scale does not start until three either. If there are two of you on the shop floor, you do not have to apply for a licence and we sell you nothing. We say so honestly.
From three mechanics up, the hall falls under the tariff for work spaces, which names workshops in so many words. That tariff charges per employee and not per square metre. For a roomy hall with a handful of people that makes a real difference. Do watch where the hall ends. In the tariff text a work space is a space without public, and customers do come into your reception or waiting area. A different classification therefore applies to that part. How it works is set out in music in the waiting room.
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 | € 142 |
|---|---|
| Sena, including the RAAP-PPI surcharge | € 285 |
| Together per year | € 427 |
Sources: Buma/Stemra, work spaces tariff sheet BUM.411.26/01, the binding tariff text for work spaces BUM.132.26/01, which names workshops in the definition of a work space, Sena, 2026 tariff overview, page 9, table Bedrijfsruimtes / kantoren / werkplaatsen, and mijnlicentie.nl, do I need a music licence for the three-employee threshold. The Buma scale runs by FTE up to 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200. The Sena scale starts at 3 and runs up to 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200. 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 carries over the noise of the shop floor?
Acoustically a workshop is the opposite of an office. Concrete floor, steel doors, a compressor kicking in and an impact wrench cutting straight through it. Music that works fine in an open-plan office disappears here completely. What stays standing sits in the mid range, where the human voice sits too, with a clear pulse and a firm attack. Soft, thin music is gone the moment someone starts the tyre changer.
At the same time you have to be able to bear it for eight hours. Music loud enough for the shop floor that keeps peaking on top of that gives you a headache by the end of the day. It is about density, far more than about volume. An even track with a steady drive comes through better than something that keeps jumping from soft to loud. You then have to open the amplifier up less far as well. Push the music on the shop floor above eighty decibels and you reach the limit where hearing protection comes into view. Then the installation works against you.
Reception asks for something else. A customer sits there waiting with a cup of coffee, and would rather hear something calm than the shop floor. With RadioMatic you make that a zone of its own with a mood of its own. There the DJ moments name your opening hours, your MOT offer or your pick-up and delivery service. On the shop floor the same station plays your internal announcements.
On the speakers hanging there now
In nearly every workshop something is already hanging. Usually an old radio on a shelf or a couple of horn speakers on the rafters, connected to an amplifier in the meter cupboard. None of that has to change. RadioMatic is a stream, and it goes into your existing installation through the line-in on that amplifier. If all you have is an old radio with an aux input, a small box or a phone hangs off it. If you have Sonos at reception, the stream plays on that.
If you want something different on the shop floor than at the desk, you put two sources in and run them both from the same dashboard. With several locations, every site has a mood of its own under one account. No engineer comes round and no cables are pulled. After your application is approved, usually within five working days, a station is live in ten minutes. The first fourteen days are free to try.
What you can choose from today
Look for music for your workshop and you will not find a provider with a page of its own for car workshops. You end up with the general business offering from Backsound and Synerplay.
With both of them you are playing music by human creators. That means two extra bills, from Buma/Stemra and from Sena. Backsound writes in its frequently asked questions that you as the business owner remain responsible for the public performance licence, which you arrange through mijnlicentie.nl. Synerplay points to Buma/Stemra and Sena for it. What that costs is set out above.
With RadioMatic the shop floor gets music with a steady pulse that carries over the compressor and the impact wrench, without giving your mechanics a headache by the end of the day. At reception something calmer plays for the customer waiting for his car with a coffee, and there the DJ moments name your MOT offer or your pick-up and delivery service. On the shop floor your team hears that the parts arrive at eleven or that there is a toolbox meeting on Tuesday.
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.
Questions that come with this
Other kinds of business
- Background music in your office, without Buma and SenaBackground music for offices
- Background music for your co-working space, without Buma and SenaCo-working and flex offices
- Background music in your company restaurant, without Buma and SenaCompany restaurant and staff canteen
- Background music for your petrol station, without Buma and SenaPetrol station and shop
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.