If you've ever been confused by LUFS, true peak, and all the different loudness numbers, this is for you. No jargon, just the numbers you need and why they matter.
loudness LUFS mastering streamingEvery producer runs into this eventually. You finish a mix, it sounds great in your headphones, you upload it to Spotify, and it sounds quieter than every other track. Or worse — you master it super loud and Spotify turns it down anyway.
The confusion comes from having three different loudness measurements that all matter for different reasons. Let me break them down without the engineering textbook.
LUFS is the one that matters most for streaming. It measures the average loudness of your track the way humans actually perceive it. Streaming platforms use LUFS to decide whether to turn your track up or down.
Here's the thing most people get wrong: you don't need to hit a specific LUFS number. The platforms normalize everything to their target. If you mix at -14 LUFS and Spotify's target is -14 LUFS, they leave you alone. If you mix at -8 LUFS, they turn you down by 6 dB. You don't gain anything by being louder.
True Peak measures the absolute highest point in your audio, including the stuff between samples. Regular peak meters can miss inter-sample peaks, which is why True Peak exists. If your True Peak goes above 0 dBTP, your audio will clip when converted to lossy formats (MP3, AAC, etc.) for streaming.
Keep True Peak below -1 dBTP for streaming. Some people say -0.5 is fine, but -1 is safer and sounds identical.
This is what the meter in your DAW shows. It's sample peaks, not true peaks. Useful for making sure you're not clipping during mixing, but it's not the number streaming platforms care about.
| Platform | Target LUFS | True Peak Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify | -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP |
| Apple Music | -16 LUFS | -1 dBTP |
| YouTube | -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP |
| Tidal | -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP |
| SoundCloud | -14 LUFS (approx) | -1 dBTP |
| Amazon Music | -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP |
See the pattern? They're all roughly -14 LUFS. Apple is quieter at -16. If you target -14 LUFS with -1 dBTP True Peak, you'll be fine everywhere.
No. This is a common mistake. You should master to -14 LUFS (or close to it). Your mix should be quieter — somewhere around -18 to -23 LUFS. This gives you headroom for mastering. If your mix is already at -14 LUFS, your mastering engineer (or your mastering process) has nothing to work with.
Don't squash your mix trying to hit -14 LUFS. Mix with headroom. Master to the target. Two different stages.
If you master to -8 LUFS and upload to Spotify, here's what happens: Spotify's normalization turns your track down by 6 dB to hit their -14 target. Your track is now quieter than someone who mastered at -14. But because you used heavy limiting to get to -8, your dynamics are crushed. So you end up quieter AND squashed. That's a lose-lose.
The loudness war is over. The platforms won. Louder doesn't win anymore — it just gets turned down.
If you master to -20 LUFS, Spotify turns you up by 6 dB. In theory that's fine, but in practice, the gain staging can introduce noise. You also lose the "punch" that comes from proper mastering compression. -14 LUFS is the sweet spot.
You can use a LUFS meter plugin (Youlean Loudness Meter, FabFilter Pro-L 2, or any free LUFS meter). Or you can just upload your track to MixDiagnose and it measures LUFS, True Peak, and dynamic range automatically. Takes about 10 seconds.
The report shows your integrated LUFS, true peak, and how you compare to streaming standards. If you're too loud or too quiet, it tells you exactly what to fix.
That's it. Stop worrying about being the loudest. Worry about being the clearest, most dynamic, best-balanced mix you can make. The platforms handle the rest.