How far will each platform turn your track down?
A platform that normalises plays every track at its own loudness, so a master louder than that is turned down by the difference. That turn-down is the loudness penalty. Drop a master and the report gives it for every platform at once.
Your report opens with a 3-day trial. Stored on our own servers in the EU, never used to train anything. Without an account it is deleted after 7 days. See a sample report
What it answers
The penalty is your master’s integrated loudness minus the platform’s target. A master made at −8 LUFS, a common level for club masters, plays this much quieter on each platform that normalises:
| Platform | Target | Turned down by | Where the target comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | −14 LUFS | 6 dB | Published by the platform |
| Apple Music | −16 LUFS | 8 dB | Partly published by the platform |
| YouTube | −14 LUFS | 6 dB | Reported, not published |
| SoundCloud | −14 LUFS | 6 dB | Published by the platform |
| TIDAL | −14 LUFS | 6 dB | Reported, not published |
| Amazon Music | −14 LUFS | 6 dB | Reported, not published |
| Deezer | −15 LUFS | 7 dB | Reported, not published |
YouTube, TIDAL, Amazon Music and Deezer publish no loudness target: the figure in their row is the one the field repeats, so their penalty rests on a reported figure, and their row in the report says how official it is. A club system levels nothing, so a club master has no penalty there; it plays as loud as the file is.
What a quieter master gets
The penalty runs one way on most platforms. On Spotify, a quieter master is turned up, but only until its true peak reaches −1 dBTP. YouTube is reported never to turn a quiet master up. The others publish nothing about it, and the report says so in their rows.
How to read it in the report
- The Platforms table in the report gives each platform’s playback level for your master: “Turned down” by how much, or “Played as is”.
- The same row gives your true peak against that platform’s ceiling, and opens to say how official the platform’s figures are.
- A large turn-down is a trade, not a fault. The level is given back on playback; the limiting it took to get there stays. If you did not choose it, ease the limiter.
Questions
Is a loudness penalty bad?
Not by itself. Loud genres accept it on purpose. What it tells you is that the extra level bought nothing on that platform, so the question is whether the density was worth it.
Which platforms publish their target?
Spotify and SoundCloud publish −14 LUFS. Apple Music publishes a headroom rule rather than a loudness figure, and YouTube, TIDAL, Amazon Music and Deezer publish nothing. The loudness targets page gives each source.
Do I need an account?
Yes, and a plan. Every report is in DJ and Studio, each with a 3-day trial.
The figures one by one: loudness targets, Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music. The choice itself: the guide to mastering loudness. One reading on its own: the LUFS checker.