Mix & Master
LUFS Targets by Platform
Where every major platform normalizes loudness — and the true-peak ceiling that keeps your master from clipping after transcoding.
| Platform | Target (LUFS-I) | True peak (dBTP) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | -14 | -1.0 | Loud setting normalizes to −11; quiet to −19. Tracks louder than −14 are turned down, not clipped. |
| Apple Music | -16 | -1.0 | Sound Check on by default on iOS. Slightly quieter target than most platforms. |
| YouTube | -14 | -1.0 | Turns loud content down, never up — quiet masters stay quiet. |
| Tidal | -14 | -1.0 | Album normalization mode preserves relative track loudness across a release. |
| Amazon Music | -14 | -2.0 | More conservative true-peak headroom than the others. |
| Deezer | -15 | -1.0 | Sits between Apple and the −14 crowd. |
| SoundCloud | — | -1.0 | No loudness normalization — louder masters genuinely play louder here. Master accordingly if SoundCloud is your primary channel. |
| Club / DJ play | -8 to -6 (short-term) | -0.5 | No normalization on a CDJ. Competitive club masters run hot; dynamics live in the arrangement, not the meter. |
Platform specs change without notice. These are the widely cited targets as of early 2026 — verify against each platform's current documentation before a release.
The math
LUFS-I = integrated loudness over the full track · dBTP = inter-sample true peak, not sample peak
LUFS measures perceived loudness the way ears do — weighted toward the frequencies we're sensitive to, averaged across the whole track. True peak matters because lossy encoding (AAC, Ogg) reconstructs the waveform between samples: a master that touches 0 dBFS in samples can exceed 0 between them after encoding, which is why platforms ask for −1 dBTP of headroom.
In practice
The trap is mastering *to* −14 LUFS because "that's the Spotify number." Normalization only turns loud masters down — it doesn't punish them. A dense club track will naturally land around −8 to −6 LUFS, get turned down on streaming, and still sound right, because turning down preserves the density you built. What actually costs you is a limiter squashing transients to chase a number. Master for the genre, keep true peak at −1 dBTP, and let the platforms do the leveling.
One real exception: if SoundCloud or club play is your primary channel, loudness genuinely competes there — no normalization means quiet masters simply sound weaker next to everyone else's.