How loud should your master be? LUFS targets for Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and clubs

The short answer. For streaming, aim for about −14 LUFS integrated with true peaks below −1 dBTP, or below −2 dBTP if you go louder than −14. A louder master isn't rewarded: it gets turned down to the same playback level. For clubs there is no normalization, and masters are usually louder.

Most "how loud should my master be" pages repeat the same table without saying where the numbers come from. Some of those numbers are published by the platforms. Others aren't published anywhere official and get copied from blog to blog. This guide keeps the two apart.

What loudness normalization does

Streaming services measure each track's loudness with the ITU-R BS.1770 method (that's what LUFS is) and adjust playback so songs sit at about the same level. In practice:

• Loud masters are turned down. A track mastered to −8 LUFS on a −14 LUFS service plays 6 dB quieter than it was mastered.
• Quiet masters may be turned up, but only as far as their peaks allow. That depends on the service.
• Albums are often kept together. Spotify normalizes a whole album at once, so the quiet song stays quieter than the loud one, as you mastered them. When you shuffle, it adjusts track by track.

Normalization is what made the loudness war pointless on streaming. You can still master loud for the sound of it (dense, compressed, aggressive), but not to be louder than the next track.

The numbers, with sources

"Commonly reported" means we found the number only in third-party articles, not on a page from the platform. Treat those rows as good estimates, not specifications.

Spotify

Spotify publishes the most detail. Its artist guide says: "We adjust tracks to −14 dB LUFS, according to the ITU 1770 standard." Premium listeners can choose Loud (−11 LUFS), Normal (−14 LUFS, the default) or Quiet (−19 LUFS).

On peaks it says to keep them "below −1dB TP (True Peak) max", and "If your master is louder than −14dB integrated LUFS, keep True Peak below −2dB to avoid extra distortion."

Apple Music

Apple's Apple Digital Masters guide explains Sound Check without giving a target: it measures each track and uses that "to raise or lower the volume of each track". It also warns that "songs that have been mastered loud will be played back at a lower volume which can make tracks actually sound weaker", and recommends leaving "at least 1 dB of headroom".

The −16 LUFS figure you see everywhere isn't in that document. It does match the AES recommendation for track-normalized music, which is why it's a sensible number to master toward.

YouTube

YouTube's help page on stable volume says the feature "is turned off for YouTube Music and official music videos", and it gives no LUFS target. The −14 LUFS figure for YouTube comes from people measuring uploads, not from YouTube.

Does Spotify turn quiet songs up?

Yes, with a limit. From Spotify's guide: "Positive gain is applied to softer masters so the loudness level is −14 dB LUFS. We consider the headroom of the track, and leave 1 dB headroom for lossy encodings."

So a quiet, dynamic master with high peaks gets turned up only until its loudest peak is 1 dB under full scale. It may end up below −14 LUFS. That's not a penalty; it's just quieter than the track before it.

The one setting where Spotify processes a track is Loud (−11 LUFS): "We apply a limiter to prevent distortion and clipping in soft dynamic tracks. The limiter's set to engage at −1 dB (sample values), with a 5 ms attack time and a 100 ms decay time."

True peak: why −1, and when −2

A sample-peak meter shows the highest sample in your file. The waveform a DAC rebuilds between samples can go higher, and so can the output of a lossy encoder (MP3, AAC, Ogg). True peak estimates those in-between peaks by oversampling.

That's why every streaming recommendation lands on a ceiling below 0:

• Spotify: below −1 dBTP, below −2 dBTP for masters louder than −14 LUFS.
• EBU R 128: "shall not exceed −1 dBTP".
• AES TD1008: "not exceed −1 dBTP at the codec input of lossy-encoded streams".

Louder masters need more room because dense, limited audio makes the encoder overshoot more. Spotify notes that "very loud masters with true peaks above −2 dB can introduce distortion during encoding".

Clubs are different

DJ software and club systems don't normalize. The DJ sets the gain, and a quiet track next to a loud one is work for them. That's why club and DJ masters are usually louder than streaming masters, often somewhere around −9 to −6 LUFS integrated for electronic music. There is no official number. If a track will be played out and streamed, it's common to make two masters: a louder one for DJs and a −14-ish one for streaming.

What to actually do

1. Mix first. Most loudness problems are mix problems: one track eating the headroom, a sub-bass you can't hear but the meter can.
2. Pick the destination. Streaming: about −14 LUFS and −1 dBTP. Apple Music, if it's the main place you're heard: −16 LUFS is a safe choice. Club: louder, with a ceiling around −0.5 dBTP.
3. Measure the whole song, not the loudest 8 bars. Integrated loudness is an average over the full track.
4. Check true peak, not just sample peak, after the limiter.
5. Listen at matched loudness. Turn the louder version down to match before you decide it sounds better.

How monody handles it

monody's Finish view renders the song and measures it against a target: Streaming (−14 LUFS, −1 dBTP), Apple Music (−16, −1), Club (−9, −0.5). The assistant can also measure and master to a custom target. Master to target puts a true-peak limiter on the master bus, solves its settings on a render so the song lands on the target, and applies it as one undoable step. It's loudness and true-peak control with a trim and a limiter; it adds no EQ.

Sources

• Spotify for Artists: Loudness normalization and Track not as loud as others?
• Apple: Apple Digital Masters (PDF)
• YouTube Help: Control video volume on your device
• EBU: R 128, Loudness normalisation and permitted maximum level of audio signals (PDF)
• AES: TD1008, Recommendations for loudness of internet audio streaming and on-demand distribution (PDF)

Platforms change these pages. We checked them on 1 October 2026 and will update this guide when they change.