Mastering Loudness Calculator

Streaming platforms measure loudness in LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) and normalize every track that comes through them to a platform-specific target, which is why mastering a track louder than that target doesn't actually make it play back louder -- it just gets turned down on playback, sometimes clipping the limiter in the process. Spotify publishes its target outright -- -14 dB integrated LUFS, kept below -1 dB TP true peak (or -2 dB TP if the master runs louder than -14 LUFS) -- and this calculator applies that figure directly. Apple Music and YouTube don't publish an equivalent numeric spec in their own documentation, so this calculator applies the same -14 LUFS figure to YouTube and a commonly cited -16 LUFS to Apple Music, both widely used mastering-community conventions rather than platform-confirmed numbers. For non-streaming formats like CD and vinyl where no platform normalization applies, the calculator falls back to conventional mastering-community loudness and true-peak guidance rather than an enforced spec.

Target Platform is the dominant factor behind both the Target LUFS and True Peak Limit results on the streaming platforms, since Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube each normalize to their own fixed target regardless of genre, discarding any genre adjustment entirely -- but on CD and vinyl, where genre does nudge the target, Genre and Target Platform move Target LUFS by comparable amounts. Genre only nudges Target LUFS on non-streaming formats (streaming platforms normalize regardless of genre, so the calculator skips the genre adjustment there), but it fully determines the Suggested Dynamic Range figure -- Classical and Jazz get wider suggested dynamic range than Pop, Rock, or Hip-Hop, reflecting how much more headroom acoustic and orchestral material is conventionally mixed with. Target Platform has no bearing on Suggested Dynamic Range at all, since that figure is keyed purely on the musical style rather than the delivery format.