Streaming platforms normalise loudness. Pushing for the loudest master possible used to be a winning strategy in 2010-era CD mastering — in 2026 it's actively penalised. Here is what each platform does to your master after upload, and what target you should actually be hitting.
What each major platform does to your master
- Spotify
- Normalises to -14 LUFS integrated by default. If your master is louder, Spotify reduces gain so the track plays at -14 LUFS. If it's quieter, Spotify can boost up to a small amount.
- Apple Music
- Normalises to -16 LUFS integrated by default (when "Sound Check" is enabled, which is the default for most listeners). Slightly more conservative than Spotify.
- YouTube Music
- Normalises to roughly -14 LUFS, similar to Spotify. Headphones get an extra boost on mobile.
- TikTok
- Normalisation is more aggressive (around -10 LUFS) because of the loud, peaky nature of in-app playback in noisy environments.
- Club PA / Festival rigs
- No normalisation. The DJ controls level. Your master needs the headroom to hit the limiter without crushing the transients — typically -9 to -7 LUFS integrated for club-targeted music.
- Radio
- Most stations target -23 LUFS (EBU R128 standard for European broadcast) or -24 LUFS (US ATSC A/85). Radio's own processors will limit anything louder.
So what should you actually master to?
Two principles:
- Match the dominant context for your release. If your track will live mostly on Spotify and Apple Music, master to -14 LUFS integrated (or quieter). If it's a club tool you're sending to DJs, -9 LUFS. If it's a TV / film sync candidate, -23 LUFS. Don't try to win all of them at once.
- True peak ceiling: -1.0 dBTP. This headroom prevents inter-sample peaks from clipping after lossy encoding (Spotify's AAC, YouTube's Opus, etc.). Even if your master sounds clean at 0 dBFS in your DAW, a brick-walled master will distort after re-encoding. Always leave at least 1 dB of true-peak headroom.
What TytCast does automatically
Each TytCast mood preset has its own integrated loudness target tuned for the listening context:
- streaming_pro / radio — -14 LUFS integrated, -1.0 dBTP. Optimised for Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube playback.
- club / festival — -9 LUFS integrated. Loud enough to hit the limiter on club rigs but with transients intact.
- warm / vintage — -16 LUFS integrated. Quieter, more dynamic, suits acoustic and traditional genres.
- lofi / cinematic — -18 to -20 LUFS integrated. Preserves headroom and texture; suits ambient and film-sync targets.
If you're not sure which preset to pick, start with streaming_pro — that's the right answer for ~80% of releases in 2026. You can always re-master into a louder preset later if you decide to also send the track to a DJ or sync agent.
Frequently asked
- Won't a quieter master get drowned out by louder tracks in a playlist?
- No — that's exactly what normalisation prevents. On Spotify, a -14 LUFS track and a -9 LUFS track play back at identical perceived loudness. The louder track loses its dynamics and gains nothing.
- Should I master to a different LUFS target for vinyl?
- Vinyl masters typically want more headroom (around -16 to -18 LUFS integrated, -3 dBTP minimum). Lower frequencies need to stay roughly mono below 100 Hz to avoid skipping the needle. TytCast doesn't currently produce vinyl-specific masters — for a pressing, send the streaming master to a vinyl-specialist mastering engineer.
- What's "true peak" vs "sample peak"?
- Sample peak measures the highest digital sample value. True peak measures the highest analog level the digital signal would reconstruct to — which can be slightly higher due to inter-sample peaks. Lossy codecs amplify this further. Targeting true peak (dBTP) instead of sample peak is what prevents post-encoding distortion.