LUFS for Spotify: The Target That Actually Matters
Published · updated · by Loopin
Spotify normalises playback to roughly −14 LUFS. That single fact changes what “loud enough” means — and it is why the loudest master no longer wins.
What Spotify actually does to your track
Spotify measures the integrated loudness of your track and adjusts playback so everything in a listening session sits at a similar level — around −14 LUFS by default. It is not re-rendering your file. It is applying a volume change at playback, and it applies it to everyone else too.
The practical consequence is simple: if you master to −6 LUFS, Spotify turns you down by about 8 dB. You do not get to be louder than the person next to you. You only get to decide what your record sounds like at the level everyone hears it at.
Why louder actually costs you
Getting from −12 to −6 LUFS means roughly 6 dB more limiting. Transients get shorter, the drums lose their front edge, and the difference between your verse and your chorus shrinks. Then Spotify turns the whole thing down anyway.
Level-matched against a more dynamic master, the squashed one usually sounds smaller and more tiring. That is the entire trade: you spent your dynamic range and got nothing back, because the playback level was never yours to control.
The number to aim for
For most music, mastering somewhere between −9 and −14 LUFS integrated is sensible, with the genre deciding where in that range you land. Acoustic and cinematic material sits at the quiet end; hip-hop and electronic sit at the loud end because the density is part of the sound.
What matters more than the exact figure is that you chose it. “As loud as it will go” is not a decision, it is a default — and it is the one that costs you the most.
True peak: the part people skip
Set a ceiling of −1 dBTP. This is not fussiness. Spotify streams lossy formats, and lossy encoding overshoots — a file that peaks at 0 dBFS can come back from the encoder above full scale and clip on playback, on hardware you will never test on.
That headroom costs you nothing perceptually because normalisation is setting the playback level anyway. Skipping it costs you distortion that only some of your listeners hear, which is the worst kind of problem to have.
What about Loud/Normal/Quiet in the app?
Spotify offers listeners three normalisation settings, roughly −11, −14 and −19 LUFS. The Loud setting applies a limiter to quieter tracks to bring them up, which is the one case where a very dynamic master gets processed by something you did not choose.
It is not worth mastering around. Most listeners never change the default, and building your record for one non-default setting means compromising it for everyone else.
Frequently asked questions
What LUFS should I master to for Spotify?
Somewhere between -9 and -14 LUFS integrated, chosen by genre rather than by habit. Spotify normalises to about -14, so anything louder simply gets turned down — you keep the damage from the extra limiting and gain nothing.
Will Spotify turn my track up if it is quiet?
On the default Normal setting Spotify mainly attenuates louder tracks rather than amplifying quiet ones. On the Loud setting it will raise quieter tracks and apply a limiter to do it, which is a good reason not to master far below -14.
What true peak should I use for Spotify?
-1 dBTP. Spotify delivers lossy audio, and lossy encoding can push peaks above where your file measured. That one decibel of headroom is what stops the encoder clipping your master on someone else’s hardware.