Short answer: aim for around -14 LUFS integrated with true peaks at -1 dBTP (-2 dBTP if you want Amazon-safe headroom), and one master covers every platform. That’s the whole practical answer. Bookmark it and move on if that’s all you came for.
But the number is the least interesting part of this, and treating it as a target is how people end up with quiet, lifeless masters that technically “hit -14” and still sound worse than the competition. So here’s what the number actually means and why it lies to you.
The current targets
Every major streaming platform normalises loudness on playback — it measures your track and applies a simple volume change to bring it toward a reference level. No compression, no limiting, just gain.
- Spotify: -14 LUFS (default “Normal” mode; listeners can pick -11 “Loud” or -19 “Quiet,” but -14 is what the overwhelming majority of listeners hear)
- YouTube: -14 LUFS
- Tidal: -14 LUFS
- Amazon Music: -14 LUFS integrated, -2 dBTP true peak ceiling (Amazon re-encodes uploaded files during delivery — the transcoding to AAC can introduce new intersample peaks, hence the stricter ceiling versus -1 dBTP on most other platforms)
- Apple Music: -16 LUFS (the most conservative)
- Deezer: ~-15 LUFS
The landscape has converged. You do not need three masters. One well-made master at -14 LUFS / -1 dBTP lands correctly everywhere, with negligible difference between platforms.
Why the number lies
Here’s the part that matters. Because platforms normalise, mastering louder than the target buys you nothing and costs you everything.
Push a master to -8 LUFS and Spotify turns it down ~6 dB to match -14. You don’t play back louder than the track mastered at -14. You play back at the *same* loudness — but you’ve already destroyed the dynamic range, transients, and depth to get loud, so your normalised-down master sounds flat and squashed next to a dynamic one sitting at the same playback level.
Read that again, because it inverts the instinct: at equal playback loudness, the *more dynamic* master sounds louder and punchier. The crushed one sounds smaller. You sacrificed everything that makes a mix exciting in exchange for a number the platform immediately undoes.
The old loudness war is over. It was lost by everyone who entered it. The full psychology of why louder feels better anyway
So what do you actually optimise for?
Not the LUFS number — that takes care of itself if the mix is right. You optimise for the mix arriving at the master already punchy, balanced, and dynamic, so that landing at -14 is effortless rather than a fight. If your mix only hits competitive loudness by crushing it, the loudness was never in the mix — and that’s a mix problem, diagnosed in the pillar, not a mastering one.
The chart-topping tracks people A/B against average around -8 LUFS in their files — and then get turned *down* to -14 on playback like everyone else. You’re comparing against a master that the platform is actively squashing back toward your level. Chasing their file loudness is chasing a number that gets deleted on the way to the listener’s ears.
The honest workflow
- Mix so the energy and density are built in, not limited in (building loudness into the mix).
- Master to roughly -14 LUFS integrated, -1 dBTP (-2 for Amazon safety).
- Keep dynamic range. If the limiter is working hard to hit -14, the mix arrived too quiet or too dynamic — go back to the mix, don’t push the limiter.
- One master. Upload everywhere. Stop worrying about per-platform numbers.
At the end of the day
How loud should your master be? Loud enough to sit at -14 LUFS without a fight, and not one dB harder. The number is a ceiling that the platform enforces for you — pushing past it is volunteering to sound worse. Optimise the mix, let the loudness follow, and keep the dynamics that make people feel something. That’s not a compromise. On normalised streaming, it’s the only way to actually win.
Optimising the mix instead of chasing the number is exactly the source-level thinking the Level Up Pro Mixing System is built around.
If your master sounds quiet even after hitting the target, why your mix sounds quiet diagnoses what’s happening upstream.
Mix Artistry — learn to mix commercial-quality music by understanding the why, not the formula. Free tools + the Level Up Pro Mixing System at https://www.mixartistry.com. Get it right at the source.
