The Loudness War is Over: Mastering for -14 LUFS
Stop guessing your audio levels. Modern streaming platforms use loudness normalization to ensure consistent volume. If your track is too loud, they crush it. If it's too quiet, they boost the noise floor. Our LUFS Loudness Meter ensures you hit the sweet spot every time.
1. What is LUFS?
LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is the global standard for measuring audio loudness. Unlike "Peak" volume, which measures the loudest single moment in a track, LUFS measures the perceived loudness over time—how loud the audio actually sounds to the human ear.
This tool implements the ITU-R BS.1770-4 K-weighting algorithm, which applies a filter to dampen low frequencies (which carry a lot of energy but aren't perceived as "loud") and boost high-mids (where human hearing is most sensitive) before calculating the average power.
2. The -14 LUFS Standard
Why does everyone talk about -14 LUFS? Because that is the normalization target for Spotify and YouTube.
- If your track is -10 LUFS (Loud): Spotify will turn it down by 4dB. You lose dynamic range without gaining volume.
- If your track is -20 LUFS (Quiet): Spotify will turn it up by 6dB. This might raise the noise floor (hiss) of your recording.
- If your track is -14 LUFS: It plays exactly as you mastered it.
Platform Targets
| Platform | Target | True Peak |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify | -14 LUFS | -1.0 dBTP |
| YouTube | -14 LUFS | -1.0 dBTP |
| Apple Music | -16 LUFS | -1.0 dBTP |
| Broadcast (TV) | -23 LUFS | -2.0 dBTP |
3. True Peak (dBTP) Matters
A regular peak meter might show your audio hitting -0.1 dB, which looks safe. However, when digital audio is converted back to analog (by a DAC in your phone or speakers), the waveform can overshoot between samples. This is a True Peak.
If your True Peak exceeds 0 dBTP, the audio will clip and distort on playback devices. Streaming services require a safety margin (usually -1.0 dBTP) to prevent this distortion during transcoding (e.g., converting WAV to AAC).
Normalization Penalty Warning
If you master your podcast or song to -8 LUFS (very loud), YouTube will display "Content Loudness: +6.0dB" in the "Stats for Nerds" window. This is the penalty. They have turned you down. There is no advantage to mastering louder than the target anymore.
4. How to Use This Tool
This is a client-side tool. When you drag and drop your WAV or MP3, the browser's Web Audio API processes the file locally. It creates an offline rendering context, runs the audio through the K-weighting filters at high speed, and computes the integrated loudness. This is often 10x-50x faster than listening to the track.
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