Loudness penalty checker
Find out how much each streaming service will turn your track down, or up, and hear it at that level before you release it. The file stays on your device.
Your file never leaves your device. Everything is measured in this browser tab.
How to use it
- Choose your master (WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3, M4A or OGG) or drop it on the panel.
- Read the table. “Change” is how many dB the service moves your track; “You hear” is the loudness listeners get.
- Listen at that level. Pick a service under the table and press play. Switch between Original and a service to hear what normalisation does to your master.
What a loudness penalty is
Streaming services measure every track’s integrated loudness and set the playback volume so that songs sit at roughly the same level. If your master is louder than the service’s reference, it is turned down by the difference. That turn-down is the “loudness penalty”.
The penalty itself is not a problem: a −8 LUFS master turned down 6 dB on Spotify sounds as loud as everything else. What it reveals is the cost of the loudness. If heavy limiting has flattened the drums, the turned-down version sounds smaller next to a more dynamic track at the same volume. Listening at the service’s level is the honest comparison.
Turning tracks up is less common. Spotify raises quieter tracks, but only as far as the true peak can go before reaching −1 dBTP. YouTube and TIDAL turn tracks down only. Apple, Amazon and Deezer do not document what they do with quiet tracks, so the checker shows no change for them and says so.
Reference levels and sources
| Service | Plays at | Turns quieter tracks up? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify (Normal)Premium listeners can pick Loud (−11 LUFS, with a limiter) or Quiet (−19 LUFS). Albums are normalised as a whole; the web player does not normalise. | −14 LUFS | Yes, until the true peak reaches −1 dBTP | Spotify for Artists: Loudness normalization, 2026-11-07official |
| YouTubeYouTube publishes no figure; measured from “Stats for nerds”. | −14 LUFS | No | MeterPlugs: YouTube changes loudness reference to −14 LUFS, 2019-09-18measured |
| Apple Music (Sound Check)Apple’s own mastering brief describes Sound Check but gives no level. | −16 LUFS | Not documented | MeterPlugs: Apple switch to LUFS, 2022-03-23measured |
| Amazon Music | −14 LUFS | Not documented | MeterPlugs: Loudness Penalty adds Amazon Music and Deezer, 2019-10-15measured |
| TIDALAlbum normalisation. | −14 LUFS | No | MeterPlugs: TIDAL adds loudness normalization, 2016-10-07measured |
| Deezer | −15 LUFS | Not documented | Deezer Community: reply from the Deezer team, 2019-12-18measured |
| Broadcast TV and radio (EBU R 128) | −23 LUFS | Delivery target: −23 LUFS, true peak no higher than −1 dBTP | EBU R 128 v5.0, 2023-11official |
Checked 7 November 2026. Only Spotify and the EBU publish their figures; the others come from first-hand measurements or statements by the service’s staff, dated as shown. Services change these settings, so treat them as a guide.
How the numbers are worked out
Your file is measured to ITU-R BS.1770-4: integrated loudness with gating, and true peak with 4x oversampling. The change for each service is its reference minus your integrated loudness. When that is negative, it is applied as is.
When your track is quieter than the reference, Spotify’s gain is limited so the true peak stays at or below −1 dBTP, exactly as in Spotify’s own example (a −20 LUFS track peaking at −5 dBTP is raised only to −16 LUFS). Services that do not raise tracks get 0 dB.
Album normalisation (TIDAL, and Spotify when playing a whole album) uses one gain for the whole album, based on the album’s loudness. Measure your loudest song to see the album’s turn-down.
Want the loudness chart, loudness range and momentary readings? Use the LUFS meter.
Questions
Not necessarily. A louder master is simply played quieter. Spotify suggests −14 LUFS, but many released songs are much louder and sound great after normalisation. Choose the loudness that serves the music, then check here how it sounds at each service’s level.
The turn-down itself is a clean volume change. Quality is set by your master: if it was limited hard to be loud, that sound stays, just quieter.
Spotify leaves 1 dB of headroom: it raises a quiet track only until its true peak reaches −1 dBTP, so it never has to limit your track on the Normal setting. On the Loud setting it uses a limiter.
YouTube does not publish a figure. Measurements of its “Stats for nerds” readout since 2019 point to −14 LUFS, and it only turns tracks down.
Spotify and the EBU publish theirs. The others are first-hand measurements or statements from the service’s staff, linked in the table with dates. Services can change them at any time.
No. It is measured and played in your browser. Nothing is sent to our servers.
More free tools
- LUFS meter: Integrated, short-term and momentary loudness, loudness range and true peak, with a chart you can play along.
- BPM and key finder: Tempo, musical key and Camelot code for any song file. No upload and no daily limit.
- Mastering for Spotify: master to Spotify’s loudness target.
- Mastering for YouTube: master to YouTube’s loudness target.
- Make an MP3 louder: raise loudness without clipping.
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