How Loud Should Your Master Be for Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube?
- 08 Nov 2026
- 112 views
Many artists still master as loud as possible, expecting their song to jump out of a playlist. On streaming services it usually does the opposite. Every major platform measures the loudness of your track and turns it up or down to a common level, so a crushed master ends up at the same volume as a dynamic one, just flatter and more tiring to listen to.
Loudness normalization in one paragraph
Platforms measure integrated loudness in LUFS (loudness units relative to full scale). If your track is louder than the platform's reference level, playback is turned down to match it. Spotify's default reference is about -14 LUFS, YouTube also plays back at about -14 LUFS, and Apple Music's Sound Check works at about -16 LUFS. Other stores sit in the same -14 to -16 range. Listeners can switch normalization off, but most never do.
What this means in practice
- A master at -8 LUFS on Spotify is turned down by about 6 dB. You gain nothing in volume, and you keep all the side effects of heavy limiting: smaller transients, less punch, more distortion.
- A master at -14 LUFS plays back at its natural level with its dynamics intact.
- Quieter than the reference is fine too. Spotify only raises quiet tracks as far as their peaks allow, so very quiet masters with high peaks may stay a little quieter than others.
Targets worth aiming for
- Integrated loudness: somewhere between -14 and -9 LUFS is a sensible range for most modern genres. Go louder only if the style really needs that density, and accept that it will be turned down.
- True peak: keep it at or below -1 dBTP. Lossy encoding (the AAC and Ogg streams many listeners still receive) can create peaks above 0 dB that clip on playback. For very loud masters, -2 dBTP gives more safety.
- Consistency across a project: on an EP or album, set relative levels by ear so quiet songs stay quiet. Album-mode normalization on some services keeps those differences.
How to check your track
- Load the final master into a loudness meter that shows integrated LUFS and true peak. Most DAWs include one, and free meters exist for every platform.
- Play the whole song from start to finish. Integrated loudness is measured over the full track, not the loudest chorus.
- Compare it with two or three released songs in your genre, played at the same normalized level. If yours sounds smaller, the problem is usually the mix or the arrangement, not the limiter.
The file you should upload
Upload a stereo WAV or FLAC file at 16 or 24 bit and 44.1 kHz or higher, exported from the full-resolution master, not from an MP3 or a video file. Do not add fades or silence that are not part of the song: long silence at the end is flagged in review, and abrupt cut-offs sound like a mistake on every platform.
Common mistakes
- Limiting a second time on the stereo bus after the mastering engineer has finished.
- Judging loudness on laptop speakers. Check on headphones, a car stereo and a phone speaker.
- Uploading a master with peaks at 0.0 dBFS. It meters fine and then distorts after encoding.
When the master is ready, upload it to SpaceMedia. Our quality review checks the audio file before delivery, and our release timeline shows how far ahead to finish it.
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