AI music vs. traditional background music: what it actually costs a shop
If you run a shop, café, or restaurant, you’ve probably already worked out — or paid someone to work out — what background music costs. It’s rarely just one number. Here’s what the traditional route actually adds up to, compared with an AI-generated alternative, using real figures rather than ballpark estimates.
What traditional background music costs
Playing music in a commercial space in Denmark typically involves two separate costs, and it’s easy to only notice the first one:
- A performing rights licence. Koda’s published tariff for background music in retail covers up to 240 m² for a base rate, then charges per additional m² above that. For a 240 m² shop, that base rate works out to about 61,77 €/month.
- A music service on top. The licence covers the right to play music — it doesn’t provide the music itself. Shops typically pay a separate provider for the actual playlist or streaming feed. Prices vary by provider, roughly 20–54 €/month; a reasonable mid-range estimate is 26,81 €/month.
Add those together and a 240 m² shop is typically paying around 88,61 €/month before it’s played a single song.
What FeelFlow Radio costs for the same shop
FeelFlow Radio is priced at 46,78 €/month for up to 240 m², with no separate licence to arrange. That’s not a discounted version of the same two-part cost — because every track is generated rather than licensed from an existing recording, there’s nothing to report to Koda or Gramex under this model, so the second cost simply doesn’t apply. (See Can businesses legally use AI-generated background music? for the reasoning behind that, hedged appropriately — it’s our own interpretation, not legal advice.)
For a 240 m² shop, that’s a saving of around 41,83 €/month — roughly 47% compared to the traditional route above.
The gap doesn’t close as a space gets bigger, either. FeelFlow Radio adds a flat 0,134 € per m² above 240 m²; Koda’s tariff adds 0,257 € per m² above the same threshold. For a 500 m² shop:
| FeelFlow Radio | Traditional (Koda + music service) | |
|---|---|---|
| Base (up to 240 m²) | 46,78 € | 61,77 € (Koda) + 26,81 € (service) |
| Extra for 260 m² above threshold | +34,86 € | +66,92 € |
| Total | 81,64 €/month | 155,50 €/month |
That’s a saving of about 73,86 €/month — roughly 48% — at 500 m².
(These figures use Koda’s published tariff structure and a mid-range estimate for a typical music service; your actual traditional-route cost depends on your specific provider and agreement. FeelFlow Radio’s own pricing is fixed and calculated automatically for your space — see the pricing details.)
The other cost: how much effort it takes to set up
Cost isn’t only measured in euros. Arranging traditional background music usually means a licensing conversation, a separate contract with a music service provider, and coordinating the two so the dates line up. It’s not necessarily hard, but it’s several steps, spread across two relationships.
Setting up FeelFlow Radio is three steps, in one place:
- Sign in with a Google account and look up your business.
- Confirm your location’s address and floor area.
- Your price is calculated automatically from that one number, and the music starts.
There’s no separate setup or consulting fee, and no contract to negotiate beyond the quarterly billing cycle. It’s built to be something one person can set up between other tasks, not a project.
Is it actually different music, though?
Worth addressing directly: this isn’t a cheaper version of the same playlist. It’s a different underlying approach — see what AI-generated music actually is for how the generation itself works. In practice, for a shop, the differences that matter most are that no listener (including staff working a full shift) ever hears a repeat, there are no ads, and every plan includes all 21 genres and 17 languages, so the station can be tuned to match the space rather than picked from a short list of pre-made options.
Ready to see the exact number for your own space? The business page has a full breakdown, including the FAQ on how the pricing and signup work in more detail.