LUFS
Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. The standard for streaming loudness. YouTube targets -14, Spotify -14, broadcast -23.
- COINED
- 2010s
- TAXONOMY
- AUDIO
- RELATED
- 4
- TEMPLATES
- 0
LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It's the international standard for measuring perceived loudness - what the listener actually feels, not just the technical peak of the waveform.
Every distribution platform has a LUFS target. YouTube normalizes to -14 LUFS. Spotify normalizes to -14 LUFS. Apple Music targets -16. Broadcast television in the US is -24, Europe is -23. Netflix wants -27. If your master is louder than the target, the platform turns it down; if it's quieter, the platform doesn't touch it (but the viewer perceives it as "soft").
The trick is: don't fight the platform. Master to the target. A YouTube creator who masters their video at -14 LUFS will sound exactly as loud as everyone else on YouTube, with no dynamic-range loss from algorithmic compression. Master too hot at -10 and YouTube turns you down 4 dB - losing every gain you fought for.
Always, on every final mix. Reference your loudness against the platform target.
When the project will not be distributed (rare). Otherwise - never skip.
Terms next to this one.
The actual maximum amplitude including inter-sample peaks. Keep below -1 dBTP for safe distribution.
Platform-specific LUFS goal. YouTube/Spotify -14, Netflix -27, broadcast -23/-24.
Reduces the dynamic range so loud bits get quieter relative to soft bits. Glue, not loudness.
Distance between the loudest and quietest moments. Compress it and everything sounds urgent. Preserve it and it breathes.