LUFS meter for your master
Drop a finished track and see its loudness and true peak, measured the way streaming services measure it. It all runs in your browser, so your music is never uploaded.
What streaming services do with it
Every service plays tracks at its own level. Louder masters are turned down, some services turn quiet ones up. Drop a file above and see where yours lands.
Amazon Music- Apple Music
- Deezer
- Spotify, YouTube, Tidal, Amazon Music
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What LUFS and true peak mean for your release
LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) is the unit streaming services use to measure how loud a track feels, not how high its peaks are. It follows the ITU-R BS.1770 standard: the audio is filtered the way our ears hear it, then averaged over the whole track with quiet passages left out. That whole-track figure is the integrated loudness, the number Spotify and the others look at.
True peak (dBTP) is the highest level the signal reaches between samples once it is turned back into sound. A master can show -0.1 dBFS on a sample peak meter and still clip after MP3 or AAC encoding. That is why the services ask for a true peak of -1 dBTP or lower.
Loudness range (LU) shows how much the loudness moves between the quiet and the loud parts of the track. A club track often sits around 3 to 6 LU, a dynamic pop song around 8 to 12 LU.
What normalization does. Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Amazon Music and Deezer play every track at a set level. A master louder than that level is simply turned down, so pushing it harder gains nothing and costs dynamics. Spotify and Apple Music also turn quiet tracks up; YouTube and Tidal only turn tracks down. SoundCloud does not normalize at all.
How loud should a master be? For streaming, -14 LUFS integrated with a true peak of -1 dBTP is the common target and is what Spotify plays at. Apple Music plays at -16 LUFS. Louder masters are not wrong, many club and hip-hop releases sit between -8 and -10 LUFS, they just get turned down. If your master is louder than -14 LUFS, Spotify recommends a true peak of -2 dBTP so the limiter on its side does not add distortion.
Spotify’s three settings. Listeners can pick Loud (-11 LUFS), Normal (-14 LUFS, the default) or Quiet (-19 LUFS). Almost everyone keeps the default, so -14 is the number to plan for.
The figures above are the services’ published or commonly observed values as of November 2026 and can change. The meter on this page measures to the same standard the services use, so the result is what they will see.
Questions about LUFS and loudness
Anything unclear about licenses, files or releases? Ask us, we answer in plain language.
Ask us anything →What is LUFS?
LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It measures perceived loudness over time rather than peak level, following the ITU-R BS.1770 standard, and is the unit streaming services use to decide how loud a track plays.
What LUFS should my master be for Spotify?
Spotify plays tracks at -14 LUFS integrated with a limiter at -1 dB. A master at -14 LUFS with a true peak of -1 dBTP plays as it is. Louder masters are turned down; if yours is louder than -14 LUFS, keep the true peak at -2 dBTP or lower.
What LUFS does Apple Music use?
Apple Music plays tracks at -16 LUFS with Sound Check on. Apple’s mastering guidelines ask for a true peak of -1 dBTP.
Does YouTube normalize loudness?
Yes. YouTube plays music at around -14 LUFS and turns louder tracks down. Quiet tracks are left as they are.
What is true peak and why does it matter?
True peak is the highest level the audio reaches between samples once it is converted back to sound. Lossy formats such as MP3 and AAC can push it above 0 dB and clip, which is why the services ask for -1 dBTP or lower.
Does a louder master sound better on streaming?
Not after normalization. A master at -8 LUFS is turned down by about 6 dB on Spotify and plays at the same level as one at -14 LUFS, only with less dynamics. Loudness helps where there is no normalization, for example on SoundCloud or in a DJ set.
Why does my track sound quieter than others on Spotify?
Often because it is more dynamic: two tracks at the same integrated loudness can feel different if one has a denser mix. It can also mean your master is below -14 LUFS and the listener’s app does not turn it up, for example on YouTube or Tidal.
What is loudness range (LRA)?
Loudness range describes how much the loudness varies across the track, in LU. Low values mean a consistently loud track, high values a dynamic one.
Is my audio uploaded?
No. The meter runs in your browser on your own device. Nothing is sent to a server, and the file is gone when you close the page.
How accurate is this LUFS meter?
It measures to ITU-R BS.1770-4 and EBU R128 with 4x oversampled true peak, the same method the services and mastering tools use. In our checks against ffmpeg’s loudness measurement the results matched within 0.1 LU.
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