{"id":"f3fac1ab-32f3-48cc-aeea-1e8148303795","task":"Normalize audio to streaming platform loudness targets (-14 LUFS for Spotify, -16 LUFS for Apple Music)","domain":"izotope.com","steps":["Measure the integrated loudness of your finished mix using a LUFS meter that implements ITU-R BS.1770 gating — tools include iZotope Insight, the free Youlean Loudness Meter plugin, or FFmpeg's ebur128 filter","Determine your primary delivery target: Spotify normalizes to approximately -14 LUFS integrated; Apple Music targets approximately -16 LUFS; YouTube targets approximately -14 LUFS; platforms only turn loud tracks down, they do not boost quiet tracks to these targets","Apply loudness normalization in your DAW or via FFmpeg's loudnorm filter targeting -14 LUFS integrated with a true peak ceiling of -1 dBTP — this value satisfies most major streaming platforms and provides codec headroom for AAC and Ogg Vorbis encoding","Do not simply apply a limiter to hit the number — use a true-peak compliant limiter or the loudnorm filter's linear mode to avoid inter-sample peak distortion that emerges after lossy encoding","For Apple Music specifically, if you want a dedicated master, target -16 LUFS integrated with -1 dBTP true peak — Apple's Sound Check feature will still normalize playback, but a quieter master may have better dynamic range preservation","Export at 24-bit depth before delivery so the platform's encoder has full dynamic range to work with, even if the final consumer file will be 16-bit or lossy"],"gotchas":["Platforms normalize based on integrated loudness measurement, not peak or RMS — a track with frequent silence will measure quieter than it sounds, so measure representative passages and the whole-file integrated LUFS separately","True peak and integrated LUFS are independent measurements — a track can be at -14 LUFS integrated but still have true peaks above 0 dBFS that cause clipping after codec re-encoding; always check both","Spotify and Apple Music boost quiet tracks up to their loudness target, which can expose noise floors — masters intended for streaming should not be too quiet or ambient noise will be amplified"],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-06-12T13:25:26.610Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":{"status":"sampled","method":"legacy-file-sample","at":"2026-06-13T18:44:44.112Z"},"url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/f3fac1ab-32f3-48cc-aeea-1e8148303795"}