LUFS for Spotify and streaming: what it is and how loud to master

What LUFS means

LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It measures how loud audio sounds to people, not just how high its peaks go. It comes from a broadcast standard, ITU-R BS.1770, and the streaming services measure your song the same way.

• The numbers are negative. -8 LUFS is louder than -14 LUFS.
• One LU is one decibel. A song at -10 LUFS is 4 dB louder than one at -14.
• A loudness meter gives three readings: momentary (the last 0.4 seconds), short-term (the last 3 seconds) and integrated (the whole song). Streaming targets are integrated: the average over the whole song, start to finish. A loud chorus can read well above the song's integrated number.
• True peak (dBTP) is the highest point of the waveform, including peaks between samples that a plain peak meter can miss. Spotify asks for true peaks below -1 dB because turning a file into a compressed stream can push peaks higher and add distortion.

LUFS for Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and the rest

Only Spotify and SoundCloud publish a number. The others come from MeterPlugs, the company behind the Loudness Penalty tool, and can change without notice.

• Apple Music calls its normalization Sound Check. Apple's mastering guide explains what it does but gives no number; MeterPlugs reported in 2022 that it plays music at -16 LUFS.
• Apple Music, Amazon Music and Deezer let listeners switch normalization on or off in their settings.
• YouTube, TIDAL, Amazon Music and Deezer don't turn quiet songs up, according to Loudness Penalty. They only turn loud ones down.

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Spotify LUFS: Loud, Normal and Quiet

Spotify measures every song when it arrives and adjusts the volume as it plays. It doesn't change your file.

• Normal is -14 LUFS. Premium listeners can also choose Loud (-11 LUFS), which adds a limiter at -1 dB, or Quiet (-19 LUFS).
• Albums are adjusted as a whole, so a quiet song on an album stays quieter than the rest. In playlists and on shuffle, each song is adjusted on its own.
• Quiet songs are turned up only as far as their peaks allow, leaving 1 dB of room. Spotify's example: a song at -20 LUFS with a true peak of -5 dB goes up only to -16 LUFS.
• The web player and third-party devices, like TVs and speakers, don't normalize at all.

Spotify's mastering advice: aim for -14 LUFS integrated with true peaks below -1 dB. If your master is louder than -14 LUFS, keep true peaks below -2 dB. The same goes for lossless.

What loudness normalization does to a loud master

On Spotify's Normal setting, a master at -8 LUFS is turned down 6 dB. One at -14 plays as it is. Both reach the listener at the same loudness.

So a louder master doesn't win any volume. What's left is how it sounds at the same level, and a master squeezed to sound loud can lose its punch. Apple's mastering guide makes the same point: songs mastered loud play back quieter under Sound Check, and can sound weaker for it.

A very quiet master has the opposite problem. Where a service doesn't turn quiet songs up, it plays quieter than the songs around it.

Should you master to -14 LUFS?

Not necessarily. Spotify suggests it, but Apple calls loudness "a technical and creative choice", and Apple's Logic Pro guide says the best loudness depends on the genre and the mix. Three rules hold either way:

1. Master for the sound you want, then check how much each service will turn it down.
2. Keep true peaks below -1 dB, or below -2 dB if the master is louder than -14 LUFS.
3. Compare masters at the same loudness, never a louder one against a quieter one. The louder one usually sounds better at first, just for being louder.

How to check the LUFS of your master

Three free ways on a Mac:

• Logic Pro's Loudness Meter (Metering > Loudness Meter in a plug-in slot) shows momentary, short-term and integrated loudness. Mastering Assistant shows the same, plus true peak. It limits its output to -1 dB true peak, and Apple says its Loudness knob, set in the middle, typically lands around -14 LUFS.
• Youlean Loudness Meter 2 is free and shows loudness, true peak and loudness range. It runs as a plug-in (AU, VST3, AAX), so it works in GarageBand, Ableton Live and most other DAWs. The Pro version ($39 in October 2026) adds streaming presets and analysis of a file you drop on it.
• Loudness Penalty (loudnesspenalty.com) is a free web page. Drop in your file, and it shows how many dB YouTube, Spotify, TIDAL, Apple, Amazon, Pandora and Deezer would turn it down. It says your file isn't uploaded, stored or shared.

To read your master in your DAW:

1. Put the meter last on the main output, after your limiter.
2. Reset it and go to the start of the song.
3. Play the whole song. In Logic's meter, press Start first. Integrated loudness needs every second of it.
4. Read the integrated number and the highest true peak.
5. Compare. However far you are above -14 LUFS is how much Spotify turns you down. Check the true peak against -1 dB, or -2 dB if you're louder than -14.

Compare your master with a reference track

A reference track is a released song with the sound you're aiming for. Comparing them only works at the same loudness:

1. Get the reference as a file. Buy it (Bandcamp sells lossless WAV and FLAC downloads) or use one of your own released masters. Streaming apps' terms don't allow recording what they play, and their normalization changes the level anyway.
2. Put the reference and your master on two tracks in your DAW.
3. Measure both with the loudness meter, and turn the louder one down until both read the same integrated LUFS.
4. Switch between them. Now you hear what listeners hear after normalization: the tone, the punch, the width, without the level.

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