'Functional, not for the charts': YourNeuroTune on copyright fees

Ahead of the AI Pitch Competition finals on 12 November at the Evoluon in Eindhoven, IO+ continues its deep-dive series profiling the eight finalists and one wildcard. In this fifth instalment, Sam Jansen of YourNeuroTune explains how the startup combines generative audio with proprietary similarity algorithms to cut heavy copyright collection fees for independent businesses while curating sector-specific soundscapes.

For an independent fitness studio, café, boutique hotel, or high-street shop, background music is essential to brand atmosphere, yet it creates a persistent operational headache. Collective management organisations like BumaStemra, Sena, or their international equivalents collect commercial music rights annually, and the fees easily run into hundreds or thousands of euros per location. Faced with these costs, many small business owners default to consumer streaming subscriptions like Spotify, unwittingly exposing themselves to legal liability for unlicensed commercial playback.

Brabant startup YourNeuroTune is tackling this tension by turning music in public venues from charts-driven entertainment into functional, legally clean audio. By pairing generative music production with automated similarity screening, the venture provides tailored soundscapes that bypass traditional copyright collection repertoires altogether.

Below, co-founder Sam Jansen explains how the company shifted from driving around the country with hardware players to running a software platform now operating across four countries.

Generative production meets similarity screening

"At the core of YourNeuroTune is a combination of generative AI for music production and proprietary algorithms for analysing musical similarity," Jansen explains. While generative audio models have matured rapidly over the past two years, generating a catchy track does not automatically clear it for enterprise distribution.

"We have developed our own technology to compare tracks against a large catalogue of existing copyright-protected works, examining similarities in both the audio and melodic content," says Jansen. "This helps us identify potential plagiarism and copyright risks before music enters our commercial catalogue. That distinction matters: generating a new track does not automatically establish its originality or suitability for commercial licensing. Our analysis supports that assessment by flagging potential overlaps for further evaluation."

To turn raw audio into a turnkey enterprise service, the platform layers algorithmic screening with human domain knowledge: "Our differentiation lies in connecting this technology with music production expertise and a practical understanding of business environments. We bring together our own software, musical judgement, and input from professionals in fitness, hospitality, and retail to deliver music suited to each setting. Automated scheduling then puts that music in the right place at the right time."

"Where many AI music tools focus on generating individual tracks, we are building an integrated system that connects creation, similarity screening, professional curation, and everyday playback," he adds. "The result is a music service that businesses can use without having to become experts in AI, music programming, or playlist management."

Scalable sector catalogues: From Riyadh to Rotterdam

Because the platform structures its repertoire into sector-wide verticals, every newly produced track scales instantly across the entire customer base. "Our model is scalable by design," Jansen points out. "We build one catalogue per sector: one for fitness, and the next ones for hospitality and retail. Each catalogue serves every venue in that sector at once, so every new track immediately benefits all our clients. Because our product is software, borders are no barrier: a gym in Riyadh uses the same app as a gym in Rotterdam. Onboarding is simple. A venue can sign up and start playing on its own, without an installer, within minutes."

The commercial footprint is naturally international: "Almost every country in the world has collecting societies that charge businesses for playing music, so the market for a legally clean alternative is everywhere. Our main challenge isn’t technology but awareness. Most business owners have never questioned their music licence, because they assume there is no alternative."

Artist ethics and the human authorship doctrine

Because YourNeuroTune produces functional audio rather than algorithmic predictions about individuals, conventional algorithmic bias concerns take a back seat to copyright ethics and creative provenance.

"Our AI doesn't make decisions about people, so bias in the classic sense of scoring or selecting people doesn't apply," Jansen notes. "The ethical questions in our field concern creators and transparency, and we take them seriously."

The startup adheres to several strict creative guardrails:

• Transparency: "We are open about the fact that our music is AI-generated. We never present it as the work of human artists, and our clients know exactly what they are buying."
• Respect for creators: "We don't clone the voices of real artists and don't generate music 'in the style of' named artists."
• Licensed foundation models: "How generative music models are trained has long been the most debated issue in our field. The music industry is now resolving it: major record labels have reached settlements and licensing agreements with leading AI music platforms, creating a framework that compensates rights holders. We work only with models under commercial licence."

Quality control extends into the physical venue as well: "Every track is reviewed for quality and for lyrics that don't belong in a public space. Anything that doesn't pass is discarded."

Underpinning the entire economic model is a fundamental European legal principle: copyright requires a human author. Purely machine-generated compositions fall outside the mandatory repertoire of traditional collecting societies, creating substantial savings for venue owners without infringing on artists' statutory rights.

Evolving from hardware road trips to automated software

Like many early-stage ventures, YourNeuroTune’s journey began with manual, boots-on-the-ground operational hustle. "Our idea came from practice," Jansen recalls. "We kept running into the same two frustrations at gyms: high music licensing fees every year, and music that didn't fit the workout or the brand. One of us brings the musical expertise, as a producer with hundreds of millions of streams; the other brings the operational expertise. We joined forces and built a solution."

Series

The AI Pitch Competition

Read all our AI Pitch Competition stories here.

View series

"We started with hardware and literally drove across the entire country to install players at every client. That was our biggest hurdle, but also our best school. It taught us the market up close: what gym owners need, what members notice, where the friction is. With that knowledge, we switched to software, with our own app and self-service onboarding, so no installer is needed."

Today, the operational model has proven its agility: "Today we operate in four countries and are growing internationally. The AI landscape made this possible. Generative music models reached commercial quality in the past two years, and the European principle that copyright requires a human author means our music falls outside the repertoire of copyright collecting societies. That combination is the foundation of our business model."

Compliance as a competitive differentiator

Under the EU AI Act, deploying generative models for background audio is a low-risk classification, with the primary statutory mandate being clear disclosure of AI-generated content. Meanwhile, the B2B SaaS structure avoids GDPR friction: "GDPR has limited impact on us. We are a B2B service: we process business customer data, but we don't track or profile the people who hear our music in a gym or shop," says Jansen.

Instead, the core compliance framework is intellectual property law. "For us, the most important regulation is copyright law, and we have built compliance into how we operate. We conduct a legal analysis for each country before entering it, and we specify our savings claims by type of right. For large clients, legal certainty is precisely the selling point, so we see compliance as part of the product, not a brake on innovation."

The Brabant launchpad

Operating from North Brabant has provided crucial access to regional mentorship and capital networks: "Brabant gives us a practical, no-nonsense entrepreneurial ecosystem," Jansen says. "Midpoint Brabant and the BOM have been genuinely valuable to us, with coaching and access to financing, and the Brainport network opens doors. The Netherlands is an excellent test market: compact, internationally minded, and quick to adopt new services. Europe provides our legal foundation through the human-authorship principle, as well as a market of 27 countries."

Real-time, reactive soundscapes for functional spaces

Looking ahead, Jansen anticipates a structural shift in how commercial spaces consume music. "In five to ten years, we expect most music in commercial spaces to be generated and functional: made for a purpose, not for the charts," he envisions. "We started in fitness, which remains our core, and we are now expanding into hospitality and retail: coffee bars, restaurants, hotels, fashion, and more."

The product roadmap also eyes ambient responsiveness: "The music itself will become smarter. Today we match tempo and energy to the workout and the time of day. The next step is music that responds to what is happening in the venue in real time. We also want to create a professional standard for small business owners. Too many of them now play music through consumer services like Spotify that aren't allowed in a business. Small entrepreneurs deserve a legal, professional alternative that fits their budget."

Disruption as renewal: The pitch at the Evoluon

Weighing in on the AI for Good debate, Jansen views practical economic relief as a tangible social benefit. "For decades, businesses have paid fixed fees for music they didn't choose, through systems they couldn't influence. AI changes that. Great music becomes affordable for every gym, café, and shop, and it can be made for the exact purpose it serves. That is disruption in the best sense: a better product at a lower price for the people who actually use it."

When taking the stage at the Evoluon on 12 November, Jansen points to proven commercial traction over speculative promises: "We believe we can win because we are not a prototype but a proven business. We serve 450+ clients in four countries, from independent gyms to a master franchisee in Saudi Arabia, with partners in the UK and Germany. Few teams combine what we bring: a founder with a proven track record in the international music industry, legal groundwork across ten countries, and a software-first product that scales without growing the team at the same rate."

"Our proposition is simple and measurable: we improve the music in venues while businesses save money," Jansen concludes. "On 12 November, the jury won't have to take our word for it. We'll simply let them hear it."

Erasmus Enterprise, BOM, and IO+ organise the AI Pitch Competition, supported by the Province of North Brabant. The finals take place during AI Summit Brainport on 12 November at the Evoluon in Eindhoven.