But if you upload a -16 LUFS mastered audio file to Spotify, Spotify will raise the audio file’s volume level to match its -12 LUFS playback level. Which means that the more dynamic -16 LUFS audio file is going to sound louder and punchier on Spotify than the -8 LUFS audio file because of the extra dynamic range. It's louder than -14 LUFS. Therefore, going for a more dynamic and punchy mix will sound better than an over-compressed master. Aim for no louder than -8 short-term LUFS during the loudest part of the song when mastering for Spotify.
Youtube, Spotify, and other music streaming sites are now firmly established as the preferred method of music consumption for listeners.
It’s important to understand how these sites deliver audio so you can give your listeners the best possible experience. You need to be aware of this:
These sites turn down louder songs to keep the playback level consistent across all tracks.
What does this mean for you as an artist, music producer, or audio engineer?
Before audio normalization and streaming sites, most music was compressed and limited to achieve maximum possible loudness. This is because we perceive louder songs to have clearer highs and a fuller low-end than quieter songs.
Onhax me. The unavoidable result of pushing loudness too much is that transients are lost, dynamic range is reduced and distortion muddies the sound.
When a loud track and a quiet track are normalized to the same loudness, the tonal balance comparison becomes unbiased. This means the louder track no longer sounds like it has more clarity or a richer bass.
(note: Loudness normalization matches the average loudness of each track. This is different from peak normalization which matches the maximum peak of the audio.)
Now that loudness normalization is the default setting for streaming services, the ‘super-loud’ songs have lost their loudness advantage and the flaws caused by over-limiting are obvious when compared to their more dynamic counterparts.
How Should You Respond To This?
This new reality is a win for the quality and integrity of future music. You no longer have to sacrifice the character of your audio by making it as loud as possible to get noticed. Instead, you can create punchy, dynamic and exciting music without worrying that it will sound weak next to other releases.
The being said, you most likely don’t want to master your music quieter than the target playback level of these sites, otherwise the other tracks will have a ‘loudness advantage’ over your song. You want to find the ‘sweet spot’ where the technical details (loudness, peak, dynamic range, and loudness range) are just right for both the music and streaming platform.
How To Create A ‘Technically’ Excellent Mix
There are two fundamental measurements you want to keep in mind when creating a master for streaming platforms.
1. Loudness
Firstly, you need to know the loudness of your music, measured in LUFS (loudness units full scale). Streaming platforms deliver music at around -12LUFS to -16LUFS integrated, with the majority of songs sitting around -14LUFS.
You don’t have to create a master that is exactly -14.0LUFS, but keep in mind that a loud song measuring -8LUFS will get turned down by at least 4dB. That 4dB reduction is headroom you could have used to create a more open, dynamic and punchy sounding mix, through applying less aggressive compression and limiting.
Shoot for anywhere in the -10LUFS to -16LUFS integrated range to get a great dynamic result. This is where your musical judgement comes into play as each song has it’s loudness sweet spot. Keeping your short-term LUFS quieter than -9LUFS is a great way to avoid any artifacts and distortion introduced by a limiter.
2. Peak
The second fundamental measurement is the dBTP (decibels true peak) of your music. Streaming platforms take your high-quality (large) Wav file and transcode it into a lossy format to allow it to stream faster to your listener’s device.
This transcoding causes the peak to increase. If you’ve not left enough headroom this will introduce digital distortion. The louder the track, the more significant the clipping.
Spotify recommends up to -2dBTP of headroom for louder masters, but if your music is around -12LUFS or quieter, -1dBTP should be enough.
Mastering The Mix created LEVELS to help you keep an eye on all of the important technical details in one easy-to-use plugin.
“But ‘LOUD’ Is Essential For My ‘Sound’”
Some argue against the advice I’ve given in this post stating that pushing the limiter super-hard is an essential step to achieve the character of their sound.
Download Songs Off Spotify
They are incorrect.
Grit, character, aggression, vibe, excitement and all qualities attributed to ‘loud masters’ can be achieved without pushing the loudness of the whole master. Often, the ‘loudness’ hides the fact that their track is lacking the traits listed above, leading to a disappointing sound on streaming platforms.
![Download music off spotify Download music off spotify](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133909049/240729657.jpg)
If you want the kick and bass to pump aggressively and for the overall sound to have some soft clipping or distortion, introduce that processing on a ‘per-channel’ basis and control it. You’ll end up with a cleaner sound that translates better when it reaches your listener’s ears.
Try This With Your Next Production
Each streaming platform has slightly different playback loudness levels, but they’re all in a similar ballpark. It’s possible to get great results across all streaming platforms using just one bounce.
Next time you’re preparing your final master for streaming platforms, try using LEVELS to help you aim for these technical specifications:
- Peaking around -0.75dBTP to -2dBTP.
- Loudness around -10LUFS to -16LUFS integrated (averaged over the entire song).
- Not louder than -9LUFS short-term at any point in the song (during the loudest section of your song).
If you’re using Sonarworks headphone and speaker correction (as I do on every single project I work on), then be sure to insert LEVELS before the Sonarworks plugin. This means you’ll get the technical readings of the audio you will be bouncing rather than the readings of the Sonarworks adjusted audio for flat monitoring.
I’ve been giving this advice for several years and I can’t even count how many people have messaged me saying how great their songs are now sounding online. I hope you get the same positive result.
Good news, with Spotify's latest announcement, the loudness wars may finally be coming to an end. So what does this mean for producers?
It appears as if Spotify have decided to join the majority of online streaming platforms and reduce their streaming target loudness from -12 LUF to -14 LUFS! By my own measurements, a solid thirty to forty minutes of the Top 50 global playlist off the free Spotify app yields an integrated value of -14 LUFS with true peaks well below -1 dbTP*. Although, it is unclear as of this writing whether the new loudness targets are being met in all territories and may require updating to the latest version of Spotify.
Who cares?
Spotify has long been the outlier in terms of online loudness, streaming a full +4 LU (1 LU = 1dB) above AES recommended streaming practices of -16 LUFS/-1dBTP and causing no end of confusion in the last days of the loudness war. Audio luminaries such as Bob Katz, Thomas Lund, George Massenberg and many more have been working with streaming services to bring their normalization targets down to optimal levels. Can you download spotify on roku tv.
Cannot download spotify on garmin. -12 LUFS is way too loud - as explained in depth here; https://ask.audio/articles/how-loudness-standards-relate-to-edm-and-club-music-production -
So this move brings Spotify into the same Loudness ballpark as TIDAL who are normalising to no louder than -14 LUFS, YouTube who seem to be normalising high view count videos to -14 LUFS, and 2 LU higher than iTunes and iTunes radio with “Sound Check” loudness normalising to -16 LUFS.
If LUFS and LU’s still confuse you, catch up here: https://ask.audio/articles/demystifying-the-confusion-around-loudness-metering-levels
So what does this mean for electronic and indie music producers?
It means that you don’t have to care about your tracks being “loud” anymore. This is because as of now, most online streaming services are matching the perceived loudness of tracks to each other to a unified target level. So regardless of how much you worked on squeezing a few extra dB out of your hyper-compressed “master”, if an online streaming service measures your track as higher than -14 LUFS (integrated) YOUR MUSIC WILL GET TURNED DOWN!
Why is this an issue? Streaming through, or from, a mobile device is how most of your audience will engage with your music outside of Live/DJ sets, so optimising for streaming makes sense. Crucially, it is more beneficial to have a dynamic track turned up than to have a loud, compressed track turned down, so mixing and mastering above -14 LUFS for online audio is not a great idea.
Unfortunately for us electronic music makers we still have to deal with SoundCloud and Bandcamp, and neither service even seems to be aware of the loudness issues facing their content. SoundCloud and Bandcamp are a free-for-all at the moment with incredibly loud music being uploaded every day, and it sucks that dance and electronic music is the last bastion of the loudness war. Soundcloud was never built on its reputation for quality audio, but a target loudness value of -14 LUFS/ -1 dBTP is highly recommended regardless of your “competition’s levels”.
Counterintuitively, using this target level will optimize your files for playback from SoundCloud and other non-normalised services, and may improve your overall sound online, and when those services do adopt a loudness target your tracks are already primed and good to go.
Conclusion
It’s time to put Loudness for Loudness sake in the past where it belongs. Spotify’s -14 LUFS decision has positive, deep and wide ramifications for every tier of music production as integrated LUFS target levels take front and center. This means that music producers all over the world can stop fixating on extreme and unhealthy loudness targets and get back to making kick-ass dynamic music free from the damaging and awful sounding constraints of hyper compression.
https://faqtree455.weebly.com/starbucks-workers-free-spotify.html. Further Measurements
*Loudness expert Ian Shepherd and mastering engineer Sigurdór Guðmundsson have performed even more extensive checks on various playlists already and can confirm that many Spotify playlists are now conforming to -14 LUFS.