Spotify goes LUFS \o/

Recording, Mixing and Producing
#1

So Spotify is going to change its loudness measurement tool to the more commun ITU1770… something stuff, and someone reads what they say about that and sums all this up


I really appreciate how they detailled each possibility and what will happen for each case.
What do you think about all of these??

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

#2

I haven’t watched the video but Spotify actually switched from ReplayGain to LUFS three months ago already.

Also, they have stopped using a limiter when turning the volume up 2 weeks ago (except for the “loud” normalisation setting that is -11 LUFS).

Lastly, the AES is about to publish a new revision of their streaming loudness recommandation in the coming weeks, for which Spotify has already agreed to comply and that will change their target from -14 LUFS to -16, among other things. The AES has met with various streaming platforms last week about this. SoundCloud was attending as well and it is likely that they are finally going to start using normalisation.

#3

Wut, that quick!

Yep, I discovered that are three “listening” settings and “loud” implies a limiter. I just forgot details on that topic since I didn’t use Spotify. I only remembered dBTP values change regarding what settings are active or not.
I also found very interesting that behaviours are different if you listen to an album the regular way or in shuffle mode.
I am very curious about how Spotify would keep or change all of these, and with this new recommandation.

Thanks for sharing this!

#4

I have quickly skimmed though the video. You should take it with a grain of salt because he is entirely relying on Spotify’s FAQ, which is outdated on several things (it still says that Spotify is using ReplayGain, for instance), and has some debatable information (like advising everyone to master at exactly -14 LUFS, as if it was a target that would apply to everything).

There is a lot at play with loudness normalisation, and this is changing constantly. We don’t need to know all the details at all times. Basically, if you make a great sounding master it will still sound great normalized. Dynamic range is left untouched in the vast majority of cases, so there really is no need to bother with too much detail when mastering, apart from the dBTP headroom (which is also explained in very simplified terms in the FAQ by the way).

Focusing on making the best possible sounding record is still the way to go.

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