Mastering for Streaming in 2024: What Loudness Level Should You Actually Target?
Mastering for Spotify LUFS is one of the most debated topics in audio production, and most of the advice floating around is wrong in practice. Streaming platforms normalise loudness, which has led to a widespread belief that mastering to -14 LUFS is the correct target. The reality is that the vast majority of clients, labels, and artists still want their music loud, and understanding what that actually means in numbers will save you a lot of back-and-forth.
Why Everyone Still Wants It Loud
The theory behind leaving dynamics for streaming is sound. If a platform normalises playback to around -14 LUFS and your track is mastered to -8 RMS, it gets turned down. If your track is mastered to -14 LUFS with more dynamics, it plays at a similar perceived volume but with more headroom and openness. In theory, the dynamic version should sound better.
In practice, when people play their track back against something that's been mastered louder, they hear a difference in level and they want to match it. Even at the professional level, that conversation happens constantly. A good-sounding dynamic master that gets turned down 4-5dB by streaming normalisation will feel quieter than a slammed master that gets turned down less, and that perception drives client decisions more than technical correctness.
Practical Loudness Targets That Actually Work
Working day to day at the professional level, -8 RMS is the standard target for most genres. It's loud, it still sounds open if the mix is good, and it sits at the level clients expect when they compare against commercial releases. For house, techno, and electronic music more generally, you can push into -6 to -7 RMS because those mixes typically have less acoustic instrumentation, fewer harmonic overtones stacking up, and the compressed, driven sound is often part of the aesthetic.
-10 LUFS / RMS is genuinely nice to listen to. There's real dynamics, the mix breathes, and details that get crushed at louder targets become audible. But clients will usually ask for it louder when they hear it against something at -8. That's just the current landscape.
The real skill in mastering isn't getting something to -8 RMS. Anybody can do that. The skill is getting it to -8 RMS while it still sounds open, dynamic, and true to the original mix. That's where the work is. Compression choices, limiting algorithm selection, how much gain is applied before the limiter, what happens to the transients - all of that determines whether a loud master sounds like a professional job or sounds crushed.
How Loudness Affects Streaming Playback
Streaming services don't all normalise to the same level. Spotify targets around -14 LUFS integrated, Apple Music uses Sound Check at approximately -16 LUFS, YouTube targets -13 to -14 LUFS. The normalisation happens on playback, not at the delivery stage. If your track measures louder than the target, the platform turns it down. If it measures quieter, some platforms will turn it up slightly, others won't.
The practical implication: masters at -8 RMS will be turned down noticeably on Spotify. Masters with more dynamics at -10 to -12 LUFS will be turned down less, and on services that turn up quiet tracks, they may actually benefit. Whether that dynamic advantage survives in context with everything else a listener hears on the same platform depends on many factors.
The honest answer is that for most commercial music, -8 to -9 RMS is where the market is, and clients expect it. For material where dynamics and feel matter more than maximum loudness, -10 to -11 is a sensible target. The decision belongs to the artist and the mastering engineer together, based on what the music actually needs.
FAQ
What LUFS should I master to for Spotify?
Spotify normalises to around -14 LUFS. Most commercial releases target -8 to -9 RMS for competitive loudness. Dynamic material can sit at -10 to -12 LUFS and benefit from less gain reduction on playback.
Is -14 LUFS the correct mastering target?
It's Spotify's normalisation target, not a mastering standard. Most commercial clients expect louder masters and will ask for more loudness if delivered at -14.
What RMS for electronic music?
Typically -6 to -7 RMS. Less acoustic complexity means you can push harder without things falling apart.
Does loudness still matter for streaming?
Yes. The sound of the limiting matters as much as the number. A crushed master at -8 RMS is worse than a well-limited one at the same level.
Learn how to get masters loud while keeping them open and dynamic with the Complete Mastering System or the fast-track Mastering Accelerator at streaky.com.
