By SongTools.ai Editorial Team
Every major streaming platform has specific loudness and quality requirements. Here's what you need to know before you distribute.
When you upload music to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, or Amazon Music, your track doesn't reach listeners at the level you mixed it. Each platform applies its own loudness normalisation — a process that adjusts the playback level of every track to a consistent target.
Understanding this matters because it directly affects how your master should be prepared. A track mastered too loud will be turned down and may sound distorted or over-compressed. A track mastered too quiet will sound thin and lifeless compared to professional releases.
The standard unit for measuring perceived loudness is LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale). Here are the normalisation targets for major platforms:
If your master measures louder than these targets, the platform will automatically reduce the volume. If it measures quieter, you've left headroom on the table.
For most genres, a master integrated loudness of between -14 and -8 LUFS works well. For heavily compressed genres like EDM and hip hop, targeting -8 to -6 LUFS is common. For acoustic, jazz, or classical recordings, -16 to -14 LUFS is more appropriate.
The true peak should not exceed -1 dBTP (decibels True Peak) to avoid inter-sample clipping, which can cause distortion on streaming platforms.
Loudness is just one element of streaming readiness. A properly prepared master should also address:
SongTools.ai's Mastering Check analyses your audio file and returns a report covering LUFS integrated loudness, true peak level, dynamic range, and stereo width. It flags any elements that fall outside recommended ranges for streaming distribution and offers specific recommendations for correction.
This gives you a clear, objective picture of whether your track is ready to distribute or whether it needs another pass through your mastering chain.
If you're mastering your own music, the most important tools are your ears and a reliable reference. Listen to your track on multiple playback systems: studio monitors, headphones, a car stereo, a phone speaker, and a Bluetooth speaker. Your master should translate well on all of them.
Compare your loudness and tone against commercially released tracks in your genre using a LUFS meter. If your track sounds significantly quieter or thinner than its reference, it's not ready.
The goal is a master that can hold its own against professional releases on every platform and every playback system. AI analysis tools make achieving that standard more accessible than ever.
All the tools discussed in this article are available on SongTools.ai — free to explore.