Brico and Carrefour switch to AI music in their stores
Two large Belgian chains are replacing their background music with AI-generated music. Sabam sees a quarter of its income from shops at risk.
DIY chain Brico and supermarket chain Carrefour now play AI-generated music in their Belgian stores. Brico works with M-Cube for this. Carrefour is rolling the change out in phases and wants every Belgian location switched over between 2026 and 2028.
They are not alone. According to VRT NWS, X2O, Krëfel, Trafic, Oh’Green and Club also play royalty-free music in their branches now.
The reason is the levies. Music by human authors carries a payment to the collecting society — Sabam in Belgium, Buma/Stemra and Sena in the Netherlands. With music that has no human author that basis falls away, and for a chain with hundreds of locations it adds up.
Sabam is watching with concern. Steven Desloovere, its head of music, told VRT NWS that twenty-five to twenty-eight percent of its income could disappear if shops switch en masse. Sabam is considering new arrangements and does not rule out going to court: AI music may formally be royalty-free, but in their view it is often inspired by existing work, which makes the legal position more complicated than it looks.
What this means for the Dutch market is not settled, but the movement is the same. It is also exactly the distinction we draw. The question is not whether AI music is called royalty-free, but whether a rights holder exists. Where one does, the bill arrives eventually.