Short answer: Spotify, YouTube and Tidal play music at about −14 LUFS, Deezer at −15, Apple Music at −16. A louder master is turned down, so there is no gain in going far past −14 for streaming alone. Keep true peak at −1 dBTP or lower. Beyond that, master for how the track should sound.
LUFS targets by streaming service
| Service | Plays music at | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify | −14 LUFS | Normal setting. Quiet tracks are turned up only as far as their peaks allow. |
| YouTube | −14 LUFS | Turns loud tracks down, leaves quiet ones as they are. |
| Apple Music | −16 LUFS | With Sound Check on. |
| Tidal | −14 LUFS | Reported target. |
| Amazon Music | −14 LUFS | Measured by users, not officially published. |
| Deezer | −15 LUFS | Reported target. |
| SoundCloud | no published target | Plays the file at the level you upload. |
These are the levels the services publish or that users have measured. They change from time to time, and listeners can switch normalization off, so treat them as the usual case rather than a guarantee.
What LUFS should I master to?
Normalization only changes playback volume. It does not change what limiting already did to the track. That gives two practical rules:
- Louder than −14 is fine if you want that sound. Many pop, rap and electronic masters measure −10 to −7 LUFS for density and punch. On Spotify a −9 LUFS master is simply turned down 5 dB. The density stays; so does any dynamics it lost.
- Much quieter than −14 costs you on some services. YouTube does not turn quiet tracks up, and Spotify only raises them as far as their peaks allow. A −18 LUFS master will sound smaller next to other songs there.
For dynamic genres such as acoustic, jazz or orchestral music, −16 to −12 LUFS usually keeps the life in the track. For dense modern styles, −10 to −7 LUFS is common. Compare with a released song you like at equal loudness and decide by ear.
LUFS for Spotify
Spotify plays music at −14 LUFS on the Normal setting, −11 on Loud and −19 on Quiet. Louder tracks are turned down. Quieter tracks are turned up only as far as their peaks allow, which is why a quiet master with high peaks can stay below the target. In album mode the whole album is adjusted by one amount, so quiet songs stay quiet relative to loud ones.
Spotify’s own advice is to keep true peak under −1 dBTP, and under −2 dBTP when the master is louder than −14 LUFS.
LUFS for YouTube
YouTube plays music at about −14 LUFS and turns louder uploads down. It does not raise quiet ones. Right-click a video and open “Stats for nerds” to see the content loudness value: a positive number shows how many dB the video is above YouTube’s level, and it is turned down by that much.
Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music and Deezer
Apple Music applies Sound Check at about −16 LUFS, so it plays music a little quieter than Spotify. Tidal normalizes to about −14 LUFS and Deezer to −15. Amazon Music has not published a target; users measure about −14 LUFS.
How to reach your target without clipping
- Measure the mix first: integrated LUFS and true peak.
- Raise the level into a true-peak limiter with the ceiling at −1 dBTP. The limiter, not the fader, sets the final peak.
- Measure again. If the target needs more than a few dB of limiting, the track will start to flatten: use gentle compression earlier in the chain rather than pushing the limiter harder.
- Compare with your reference at equal loudness. Louder always sounds better at first, so match levels before judging.
True peak for streaming
True peak is the highest point of the waveform including peaks between samples. Encoding to MP3, AAC or Ogg can push those peaks over 0 dBFS, which clips on playback. A ceiling of −1 dBTP leaves room for that; −2 dBTP is safer for very loud masters. Sample-peak meters can read 0.5 dB or more below true peak, so use a meter that shows dBTP.
Suno tracks and streaming
A Suno track we measured came out at −16.1 LUFS integrated with true peak at −3.7 dBTP. Spotify would turn it up about 2 dB; YouTube would leave it about 2 dB quieter than other music. After mastering, the same track measured −9.4 LUFS with true peak at −1.1 dBTP, so every service turns it down instead and it sits level with commercial releases. Check your own track with the free LUFS meter, and see What are LUFS for how the measurement works.