Free loudness checker
How loud is your song?
Measure your song’s LUFS and true peak, and see how loud Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube will play it.
What the numbers mean
- Integrated loudness (LUFS) is the loudness of the whole song. Streaming services turn every song to a common level based on this value.
- Loud parts is the short-term loudness of the loudest stretches: how loud your chorus or drop feels. Our masters reach about −8.5 LUFS here, or −11 for streaming.
- True peak (dBTP) is the highest level between the samples, after conversion back to sound. Above 0 dBTP the song can distort after encoding.
- Loudness range (LU) shows how much the loudness moves between the quiet and the loud parts.
- Punch (PSR) is the true peak minus the loud parts. Below about 6 dB a master starts to sound squashed.
How loud should a song be?
Unmastered mixes often measure between −24 and −16 LUFS, with plenty of peak room. Released songs are much louder: around −7 to −10 LUFS for pop, hip-hop, rock and electronic music. Streaming services turn those loud songs down to about −14 LUFS, so a loud master gains nothing there, but it doesn’t lose anything either as long as it keeps its punch.
The real problem is the other way round: a quiet song is turned up only as far as its peaks allow, and on YouTube and Tidal not at all. That’s why an unmastered mix sounds small next to other songs in a playlist. More on the targets in mastering for Spotify.
From a measurement to a master
If your song measures quiet or its peaks are too high, mastering fixes both: it sets a competitive loudness, controls the true peaks and balances the tone. MakeItSoundPro masters every song three ways, Gentle, Balanced and Bold, and lets you compare them with your original at the same loudness, so you hear what changed rather than just more volume.
Questions
Is my song uploaded?
No. Your browser decodes and measures the file on your own device; the song never leaves it. Only if you choose to master it is it uploaded, after you sign in.
How accurate is this LUFS meter?
It measures to ITU-R BS.1770, the loudness standard behind Spotify's normalisation: K-weighting, gated integrated loudness, 3-second short-term loudness and a four-times oversampled true peak. On standard sine test signals it reads within 0.1 LU, and it gives the same values as the meter in our mastering engine. Lossy files (MP3, AAC) measure the decoded audio, which can peak slightly higher than the original WAV.
What LUFS should my song have for Spotify?
Spotify plays songs at about −14 LUFS integrated and turns louder songs down, so there is no need to master to exactly −14. Most commercial pop, hip-hop, rock and electronic releases sit around −7 to −10 LUFS, because a dense master has a sound of its own. What matters is that your master still sounds punchy at its loudness, with true peaks at −1 dBTP or slightly below.
Why does my song sound quieter than others on Spotify?
Spotify only turns a quiet song up as far as its peaks allow, keeping them under −1 dBTP. An unmastered mix with high peaks and low loudness therefore stays quieter than other songs. YouTube and Tidal never turn quiet songs up. Mastering raises the loudness while controlling the peaks, so the song plays at the same level as everything else.
What is the difference between integrated LUFS and the loud parts?
Integrated loudness averages the whole song, quiet intro and breaks included; it's the value streaming services normalise. The loud parts are the short-term loudness of the loudest stretches (the 95th percentile of 3-second windows): how loud your chorus or drop feels. A song with a long quiet intro can have a low integrated value and still be loud where it counts.
What does PSR mean?
PSR, the peak to short-term loudness ratio, is the true peak minus the loudness of the loud parts. It shows how much punch is left in a master: below about 6 dB, drums lose their impact and a master starts to sound squashed.