Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Spotify plays most tracks at about minus 14 LUFS, so a hotter master gains nothing. The figure is taken from International Telecommunication Union, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Streaming services turn loud masters down

Spotify plays most tracks at about minus 14 LUFS, so a hotter master gains nothing Loudness is measured in LUFS, a unit defined in the ITU-R BS.1770 standard that approximates how the ear judges level. Broadcasters in Europe settled on minus 23 LUFS for television under the EBU R128 recommendation in 2011. Streaming platforms instead turn each track towards a common target, so pushing a master louder only costs it dynamic range. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

International Telecommunication Union

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European broadcasters agreed a loudness target in 2011EBU R128 recommended minus 23 LUFS so adverts stopped jumping out louder Loudness is measured on a logarithmic scaleA whisper is around 30 decibels and an orchestra can reach 100 The loudness war flattened CD masters for two decadesEngineers squeezed peaks with compressors so their records would sound louder Vinyl cutters fold deep bass into monoOut-of-phase low frequencies would throw the stylus out of the groove Peaks between samples can exceed digital zeroReconstruction filters can overshoot the highest stored value in a digital file SoundExchange pays royalties for digital radio playsThe body splits non-interactive streaming money between artists and rights owners

Tags: mastering, loudness, streaming

Streaming services turn loud masters down: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Spotify plays most tracks at about minus 14 LUFS, so a hotter master gains nothing. The figure is taken from International Telecommunication Union, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.