How Loud Should My Master Be?

Spotify figures from Spotify for Artists: Loudness normalization, checked October 2026. Normalization isn’t symmetrical everywhere: YouTube won’t turn a quiet master up, so mastering well under the target costs you there.

What dB should a master be?

“How loud” can be measured in several ways: sample peak, true peak, RMS, LUFS and, in the room, dB SPL. They answer different questions.

For a release, two of them matter most: integrated LUFS, which every major platform uses to set playback level, and true peak, which tells you whether the file will clip after conversion or encoding.

What is LUFS

LUFS means Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. The measurement (ITU-R BS.1770) weights frequencies roughly the way we hear them, so it follows perceived loudness much better than a plain average.

Meters show three readings: momentary (400 ms), short-term (3 seconds) and integrated (the whole song). Streaming services use integrated loudness to play one song after another at a similar level, so the listener doesn’t keep reaching for the volume.

How much loudness do you need for mastering?

It depends on the genre and on the song. A loud EDM track and an acoustic ballad won’t sit at the same level, and the range is wide even inside one genre.

You’ll find rock masters at -9 or -8 LUFS integrated, pop at -7, and aggressive EDM as loud as -5. Find the range your genre sits in, check it against a few references, and stay inside it.

How loud should my master be in RMS?

RMS (root mean square) is the average level of the signal. It’s still a useful meter while you work, but platforms don’t use it. They measure LUFS.

As a rough guide, a master around -9 to -8 dB RMS is a loud, commercial level.

How many integrated LUFS should I aim for?

Most services play music at about -14 LUFS integrated, and Apple Music at about -16. Some tutorials say your master should sit exactly on that number. It doesn’t have to.

A master louder than -14 LUFS simply gets turned down on Spotify. You can master at -14 LUFS or louder, up to about -7 LUFS, depending on the genre and how much dynamic range the song needs.

Going much quieter than -14 LUFS is the riskier direction.

Three reasons not to master too quiet:

• Not every platform turns quiet tracks up. YouTube lowers loud videos to about -14 LUFS but leaves a -16 LUFS upload at -16, so it plays quieter than everything around it.
• Spotify does raise quiet tracks, but only as far as the peaks allow, leaving 1 dB of headroom. A dynamic master with high peaks may never reach -14 LUFS.
• On Spotify’s Loud setting (-11 LUFS), quiet tracks go through Spotify’s own limiter. You don’t control how that limiter treats your song.

If one master is going to every service, make it no quieter than -14 LUFS. For commercial pop, hip-hop and EDM we usually land around -9 LUFS.

How loud should my master be for Streaming Services?

Each service normalizes in its own way. The table above has the numbers. Here is what they mean in practice.

Spotify

Spotify normalizes to -14 LUFS integrated by default. Loud tracks are turned down. Quiet tracks are turned up only within their true-peak headroom. Albums are normalized as a whole, so the level differences between tracks stay intact. Our guide to mastering for Spotify goes deeper.

Apple Music

Sound Check plays tracks at roughly -16 LUFS and adjusts in both directions. Apple’s own mastering guide makes the point plainly: songs mastered loud play back quieter and can sound weaker.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud normalizes playback but hasn’t published a target. Master for the other platforms and check the result on SoundCloud.

YouTube

YouTube turns loud uploads down to about -14 LUFS and doesn’t lift quiet ones. Open “Stats for nerds” on your video: “content loudness” shows how far above or below the reference the upload sits.

Some artists upload a different version to YouTube than to the audio platforms, mostly in rap. It’s rare, and with one good master usually unnecessary.

How to determine the necessary loudness and dynamic range?

Compare your master with released tracks in the same genre. Use a lossless copy of each reference (a purchased WAV or AIFF, not a recording of a stream), and measure its integrated LUFS, true peak and short-term loudness in the loudest section.

Then loudness-match the reference and your master before you listen. If you don’t, the louder one will always seem better.

How many LUFS is too many?

For most material, past about -7 LUFS the music stops getting louder and starts getting worse. Limiting and clipping flatten the waveform until it looks more like a brick than a wave.

And on a platform that normalizes, the squashed master is turned down to the same level as everything else. The distortion stays. The loudness doesn’t.

Here is a heavily limited song, well above -14 LUFS:

This is the same song after the platform normalizes it to -14 LUFS:

And this is a more dynamic song at the same -14 LUFS:

At the same measured loudness, its transients reach higher, so to a listener it hits harder.

So, how do I make a perfect song?

Keep the balance: loud enough for the genre (commercial releases often sit around -9 LUFS), a ceiling that doesn’t clip on playback, and enough dynamic range that the song still moves after normalization. Your references will show you where the genre sits. If you’d rather have an engineer make that call, mastering services at Major Mixing are $50 per song.

A well-balanced mix and a careful master hold up on every platform. Nothing in a platform’s normalization rewards over-limiting.

Want an engineer to set the loudness for your genre? Our online mastering is $50 per song, 2–3 days per song, 6 revision rounds included. Not sure whether the problem is loudness or the mix itself? Free mix feedback from an engineer will tell you.