You finish a mix, bounce it, and it sounds quiet next to commercial records. So you reach for a limiter and push. Now it is loud, but it has lost its punch and something about it feels tiring to listen to.
Here is the thing almost nobody explains: on streaming, that loudness gets thrown away anyway.
Streaming Turns Everything Down
Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon all normalise playback. They measure how loud your track is and adjust it to a consistent level so listeners are not constantly reaching for the volume.
Which means if you crush your master to be 3 dB louder than the next song, streaming simply turns it back down by 3 dB. You do not end up louder. You just end up with less dynamic range than the person who did not crush theirs.
"You cannot win the loudness war on streaming. It was called off and nobody told the mixers."
The Targets
| Platform | Normalises to | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify / YouTube / Amazon / Tidal | −14 LUFS | Master here for most songs |
| Apple Music | −16 LUFS | Covered if you hit −14 |
| Acoustic and dynamic material | aim −16 LUFS | Keeps the emotion intact |
| True peak, everywhere | −1.0 dBTP ceiling | Set this in your limiter |
What LUFS Actually Means
LUFS measures perceived loudness over time — how loud something feels, not how tall the peaks are. It is closer to how your ears work than a peak meter is.
Most DAWs have a loudness meter built in. Put one on your master, play the whole song, and read the integrated value at the end. That number is what streaming platforms will read too.
Why the Ceiling Is −1.0 and Not 0
When your track gets converted to MP3 or AAC for streaming, the encoding process can push peaks slightly higher than they were. If you mastered right up to 0, those overshoots clip and you get distortion that was not in your file.
Leaving a decibel of headroom costs you nothing audible and prevents it entirely.
The Mastering Order
Fix problems, glue, add warmth, shape, then limit — and the limiter always goes last. Corrective EQ first, subtractive and gentle. A glue compressor doing 1 to 2 dB. Optional saturation for warmth and perceived loudness. A final musical EQ for character. Then the limiter, aiming for a few dB of gain reduction, ceiling at −1.0 dBTP.
Every move at this stage should be small. If you are making big corrections in mastering, the problem is in the mix.
Free: the one-page quick reference
Compression starting points for every instrument plus the frequency map, on a single page you can keep open while you mix. Free — just tell me where to send it.
Get the Free Sheet →Want the actual numbers for every instrument?
I put together a cheat sheet with the full chain for each instrument — the exact EQ moves, compression ratio, attack, release and gain reduction, plus effects and a complete mastering chain. It is the reference I use every day at Darkstorm Studios. Works with any DAW and any plugins.
See the Cheat Sheet →The Honest Advice
Stop chasing loudness and start chasing clarity. A well balanced mix at −14 LUFS sounds bigger than a crushed one at −9, because it still has the dynamic contrast that makes a chorus feel like it arrived. For acoustic, country, rock and singer-songwriter material, that contrast is the sound.