How much will streaming turn your track down?
Platforms level every track to their own loudness target. A master that is louder than the target is turned down by the difference. Drop your track to see the turn-down on each platform, or move the slider below to see the rule before you upload.
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| Platform | Target | What the platform will do |
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Echoteka brings the master to a target loudness and keeps the true peak at or below −1 dBTP, so the track survives normalization without losing its dynamics. Your first mastering is free.
What loudness normalization does
Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, TikTok and other platforms bring every track to their own loudness target. A track louder than the target is turned down by the difference. A listener never hears it louder than the neighbouring track in a playlist.
That changes the meaning of the loudness race. A louder master used to win the comparison. After normalization that advantage is gone: the level is evened out, but the dynamics that were given up for loudness do not come back. A squeezed track plays at the same level and sounds flatter.
Target levels by platform
The targets differ, so one master behaves differently on each platform. Spotify, YouTube and TikTok aim at about −14 LUFS, and Apple Music at −16 LUFS, which is stricter. Deezer sits close to −15. Everywhere the advice is to keep the true peak at or below −1 dBTP: the headroom stops a codec from clipping when the track is encoded to AAC or Opus.
That is why a master at −8 LUFS, made for a club, loses about 6 dB on streaming and sounds lifeless next to a track mixed at −14 LUFS with its dynamics intact.
How to read the result
The tool measures the integrated loudness of your file according to ITU-R BS.1770 and shows how many decibels each platform will turn it down. Zero means the track already matches the target. A negative value is how much it will be turned down.
A turn-down of 1 to 2 dB is normal and needs no rework. A turn-down of 4 to 6 dB says the master is squeezed: the loudness will be removed anyway, and the compression stays. Such a track is worth remixing with less compression.
What to do when the turn-down is large
Lower the loudness target of the master and ease off the limiter. Aim for −14 LUFS instead of −9, and leave room on the peaks. After normalization the track then sounds as loud as a squeezed one, but with its transients intact, so the drums stay punchy instead of clicking.
If the mix is quiet, raise its level in the mix itself rather than pushing a limiter in mastering. A limiter has no access to the individual tracks, so it presses everything at once.
Questions
What is loudness normalization and the turn-down?
Streaming platforms level the loudness of every track to their own target (Spotify and YouTube at about −14 LUFS). A master louder than that is turned down by the difference. That is the turn-down. The loudness you squeezed for is gone, and so are the dynamics you lost.
Why does a louder master lose after normalization?
Once the loudness is levelled, a squeezed track plays at the same level as a dynamic one, but without transients and air: flat and tiring. The winner is dynamics, not loudness.
Which LUFS should I aim for on streaming?
−14 LUFS integrated is a safe target for Spotify, YouTube, TikTok and most platforms. Apple Music uses −16. Club genres are mastered louder on purpose, knowing what normalization costs.
Turn-down above zero? Read the loudness targets by platform. Track quieter than your neighbours on Spotify? See Spotify loudness.
Other free tools: LUFS checker · True peak · Mastering calculator · Free mastering