Loudness Penalty on Streaming: What It Is and How to Check It

November 11, 2026 · All posts

A loudness penalty is the amount a streaming service turns your song down when it is louder than the level the service plays everything at. If a platform plays at −14 LUFS and your master measures −9 LUFS, the penalty is 5 dB. Nothing is damaged and nothing is rejected. The service lowers the playback volume, and you lose the loudness you pushed for.

You can see the number for your own file in the free loudness penalty checker. It measures the whole track and shows the turn-down for each platform in a table. This guide explains how to read that table, where the numbers come from, and what to do when the penalty is large.

What the penalty is, in one example

Loudness is measured in LUFS, which is a way of averaging how loud a track sounds over its full length. Most streaming services pick a reference level and move every track toward it, so that one song does not blast after a quiet one.

Take two masters of the same song. One measures −9 LUFS, the other −14 LUFS. On a service that plays at −14 LUFS, the first is lowered by 5 dB and the second is left alone. Both arrive at the same playback level. The louder master gained nothing, and it still carries the heavy limiting that was used to make it loud.

That is the whole idea of the penalty, and it is why a higher LUFS number does not make a track louder on the platform. You can read more about the readings themselves in how to read loudness numbers.

What the platforms publish

Only some services say what they aim for, and some of the figures come from outside measurements. This is what we can support, with the source:

Treat the last four rows as an estimate. They are a sensible reference, not a promise from the platform, and platforms change their settings from time to time. Check the platform's own documentation before an important release. Our pages on Spotify loudness and Apple Music loudness keep the sources and the dates we checked them, and streaming loudness targets puts them in one table.

Spotify's page adds two details worth knowing. Its default setting is −14 LUFS, with a Loud setting at −11 LUFS and a Quiet setting at −19 LUFS for Premium listeners. And Spotify says it also raises softer masters toward −14 LUFS, leaving 1 dB of headroom for lossy encoding. The checker does not model that. It reports a turn-down only for tracks that are louder than the target.

How big a penalty is normal

The arithmetic is simple: penalty = your integrated loudness minus the platform level, when the result is above zero. The checker rounds it to one decimal place.

We tested the tool with a generated noise file, scaled to three different levels, and read the table it returned:

A noise file is not music, so this only shows how the table behaves. It does not tell you what is typical.

For real tracks, our own measurements help. In the Suno loudness report, 248 Suno exports were measured before any processing. The median was −14.3 LUFS. About a third of them (36%) were louder than −14 LUFS, and for those the median turn-down on Spotify was 0.9 dB. Only 6% were louder than −10 LUFS. So a typical AI-generated song is already close to the reference, and a big penalty is the exception. If you want the full picture for that case, read why Suno exports are already at streaming loudness.

The same report shows what a large penalty usually means. Of the masters that came out louder than −8 LUFS in our engine, 86% had a crest factor under 9 dB. Crest factor is the gap between the peaks and the average level, so a low value means the hits and attacks were already flattened. A master like that is turned down by about 6 dB on Spotify, and it keeps the flattening.

Step by step: check your track

1. Export the file you plan to release. A WAV, MP3 or FLAC file up to 100 MB works. Check the exact file you will upload, because an MP3 made from a WAV can measure a little differently after encoding.
2. Open the loudness penalty checker and drop the file in the box. The file is sent to our server for the measurement. The listening and the before-and-after preview run in your browser.
3. Read the table. Each row shows the platform, its level and either "untouched" or "turned down by" some number of decibels. Read the streaming rows. The last row, EBU R128 at −23 LUFS, is a broadcast reference for TV and radio, not a streaming service, so you can ignore it for a release.
4. Look at the loudness over time. The checker draws a curve of the short-term loudness with the −14 LUFS line on it. The parts above the line are what a platform at that level takes away. If only the loudest chorus crosses the line, the penalty is small. If the whole curve sits above it, the entire song is turned down.
5. Listen to the platform version. Pick a platform in the list below the table and press the button to switch between the original and the version turned down by that platform's penalty. The switch happens while the song plays, so you can hear what changes.
6. Decide. If the penalty is small, publish. If it is large, go back to the master, not to the upload.

You can also try the rule without a file. The slider at the top moves a made-up master from −20 to −5 LUFS and shows the turn-down per platform right away. It is arithmetic in your browser and sends nothing.

What to do when the penalty is large

A penalty is a signal about the master, not a fault in the file. The usual fixes are these:

• Lower the loudness target and ease the limiter. Aim near −14 LUFS instead of −9. After the platform adjusts the level, the track plays as loud as a squeezed one, with its transients intact.
• Fix the level in the mix. If the mix is quiet, raise it in the mix rather than asking the limiter to do all the work. A limiter sees only the finished stereo file.
• Leave headroom on the peaks. Spotify asks for a true peak below −1 dBTP, and below −2 dBTP when the master is louder than −14 LUFS. True peak explained shows why a file can clip after encoding even when it does not clip on your meter.
• Measure again after each change. Re-export, drop the new file in and compare the rows.

If you are not sure where your numbers sit, the mastering calculator shows the gain change per platform target, and the LUFS checker gives the full reading: integrated loudness, true peak and loudness range.

When a penalty does not matter

A small penalty is normal. A turn-down of a decibel or two changes nothing you can hear, and chasing exactly zero is not a goal. Dense genres are often mastered louder on purpose and simply turned down. Quiet, dynamic music can stay below the reference and will not be punished for it.

A zero penalty is also not a quality score. A master can avoid any turn-down and still sound flat, so listen to it next to a reference track as well. And if you release a song made with an AI generator, remember that loudness work does not change where the song came from. If a platform or distributor asks you to disclose AI use, disclose it.

Common mistakes

• Measuring the wrong file. The penalty belongs to the file you upload. Measure the one you will release.
• Comparing a clip with a song. The checker reads the integrated loudness of the whole track. A short excerpt gives a different number from the full song.
• Reading the result as a verdict on the music. The table says how much a platform will change the level. It does not say whether the song is good.
• Trusting one number for every platform. TikTok and Instagram do not publish a target, so a −14 LUFS reference there is an estimate.
• Pushing loudness to win a comparison. Once the level is evened out, the louder master has no advantage. The one with more dynamics usually sounds better.

FAQ

What is a loudness penalty? It is the number of decibels a streaming service lowers your track when it measures louder than the service's playback level. If the track is at or below that level, the checker shows it as untouched.

How much will Spotify turn my song down? Take your integrated loudness and subtract −14 LUFS. A master at −9 LUFS is turned down by about 5 dB. A master at −14 LUFS or quieter gets no turn-down from the checker. Spotify itself also raises quiet tracks, which the checker does not show.

Is a loudness penalty bad? Not by itself. It means the platform equalised the level. It matters when the penalty is large, because it usually means the master was squeezed to reach a loudness that the platform then removed.

Does the checker keep my file? The file is sent to our server for the measurement only, and the preview plays in your browser. The tool accepts WAV, MP3 and FLAC up to 100 MB.

Which LUFS should I aim for? About −14 LUFS integrated is a safe reference for Spotify, YouTube and several others, with a true peak at or below −1 dBTP. It is a reference, not a rule.

Does the penalty change the sound? It changes the level only. The platform does not remove the dynamics you gave up in mastering, so the loudness is lost and the flattening stays.