How Loud Should Your Master Be? LUFS Values for Every Platform
Few questions come up more often during mastering than this one: how loud should the track actually be? There's no one-size-fits-all answer, because the loudness standard shifts from platform to platform. Aim for a number that doesn't match your target platform, and you risk one of two outcomes: automatic normalization pulls the track down and strips away its punch, or it just sits there quieter than everything around it.
Every LUFS Target at a Glance
Current figures as of 2025 — integrated LUFS alongside the maximum allowed True Peak in dBTP:
| Platform | Target LUFS | True Peak Max. | Normalization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | −14 LUFS | −1 dBTP | Normalizes downward |
| Apple Music | −16 LUFS | −1 dBTP | Normalizes up & down |
| YouTube | −14 LUFS | −1 dBTP | Normalizes downward |
| TikTok | −14 LUFS | −1 dBTP | Active |
| Amazon Music | −14 LUFS | −2 dBTP | Active |
| Deezer | −15 LUFS | −1 dBTP | Active |
| SoundCloud | −11 LUFS | −0.1 dBTP | None |
| Tidal | −14 LUFS | −1 dBTP | Active |
| Club / DJ system | −6 LUFS | −0.1 dBTP | None |
| Broadcast (EBU R128) | −23 LUFS | −1 dBTP | Active |
So Which Number Should You Actually Master To?
If your track goes out on several platforms at once, −14 LUFS — the Spotify figure — is the safest starting point. It's become something like the unofficial industry default and translates reasonably well to most other services too.
Club music plays by different rules. There you're aiming for −6 LUFS, since PA systems don't normalize anything and raw loudness genuinely matters in a DJ set.
Apple Music is its own case entirely. The target sits at −16 LUFS, and Apple will actually boost a track that comes in too quiet — though the ceiling still applies, so an overly loud master gets pulled back down just the same.
You don't need to work any of this out by hand — Beatzucker detects the platform you've selected and sets the matching LUFS target for you automatically.