Creator media glossary
What is LUFS?
Short answer
Loudness Units relative to Full Scale: a measure of how loud audio sounds over time, used by streaming and podcast platforms to set every track to a similar volume.
Key takeaways
- LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) measures how loud audio sounds over time, per ITU-R BS.1770.
- Spotify normalizes music to -14 LUFS; Apple Podcasts recommends about -16 LKFS; European TV uses -23 LUFS.
- Integrated loudness is the number platforms use; keep true peaks at -1 dBTP or lower.
- Mastering louder than a platform's target gains nothing: it is turned down.
LUFS explained
LUFS measures perceived loudness rather than peak level, using the ITU-R BS.1770 method, and one loudness unit equals one decibel. The figure most often quoted is integrated loudness, the average over the whole track or episode, read from a loudness meter in your editor or audio tool.
Platforms normalize to a target: Spotify plays music at -14 LUFS by default and Apple Podcasts recommends about -16 LKFS (the same scale) for episodes. Mixing much louder does not make you louder after normalization; the platform turns you down, and the heavy compression you used to get there costs dynamic range.
How loudness is measured
Peak meters only show the loudest instant. Loudness meters follow ITU-R BS.1770: the signal is filtered to match how sensitive hearing is to each frequency (K-weighting), its energy is averaged over time, and very quiet passages are ignored by a gate so silence does not drag the number down. The result is in LUFS (EBU) or LKFS (ITU and US broadcast), which are the same scale.
| Reading | Time window | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Momentary loudness | 400 ms | Watching the meter while mixing |
| Short-term loudness | 3 seconds | Loudness of a section or chorus |
| Integrated loudness | The whole program, gated | The single number platforms normalize to |
| Loudness range (LRA) | Spread of short-term values | How dynamic the mix is |
| True peak (dBTP) | Oversampled peak | Avoiding clipping after encoding |
The loudness war and normalization
From the 1990s, masters got louder and louder through heavy compression and limiting, because louder tracks seemed better on radio and in shuffled playlists, at the cost of punch and dynamics. Loudness normalization ended most of the advantage: streaming services and broadcasters measure integrated loudness and turn loud tracks down to a target. A master squashed to -8 LUFS is simply played quieter, and sounds flatter than a dynamic master at the same level.
Loudness targets by platform
| Platform | Target | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify (music) | -14 LUFS | Loud -11, Quiet -19 for Premium; softer tracks are raised only as far as true-peak headroom allows |
| Apple Podcasts | About -16 LKFS, plus or minus 1 dB | True peak at most -1 dBFS; measured to ITU-R BS.1770-5 |
| YouTube | Not published | Its upload encoding page lists codec, sample rate and bitrate, but no loudness target |
Broadcast loudness standards
| Standard | Region | Target | True peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| EBU R 128 | Europe | -23 LUFS, ±0.5 LU | -1 dBTP maximum |
| ATSC A/85 | United States | -24 LKFS | -2 dBTP recommended |
How to measure and set LUFS
- Free meters: Youlean Loudness Meter (plugin and app); the loudness meters built into Logic Pro, DaVinci Resolve's Fairlight page and Premiere Pro.
- Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro can conform a clip to a target with Match Loudness.
- FFmpeg:
ffmpeg -i mix.wav -af ebur128 -f null -prints integrated loudness and true peak; the loudnorm filter adjusts to a target. - For speech and podcasts, aim for about -16 LUFS integrated with true peaks at -1 dBTP or lower; for music on Spotify, -14 LUFS avoids being turned down.
- Check true peak after encoding to MP3 or AAC, which can raise peaks slightly.
Free tools:Audio normalizerHow we measure loudness
Frequently asked questions
What does LUFS stand for?
Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It measures perceived loudness using the ITU-R BS.1770 method; one loudness unit equals one decibel.
What LUFS does Spotify use?
Spotify normalizes to -14 LUFS by default. Premium listeners can choose Loud (-11) or Quiet (-19). It measures loudness on upload and adjusts volume during playback; the web player and some devices do not normalize.
What LUFS should a podcast be?
Apple Podcasts recommends an overall loudness of about -16 LKFS (the same scale), within 1 dB, with true peaks no higher than -1 dBFS.
Is LUFS the same as dB?
A change of 1 LU equals 1 dB, but a LUFS figure is a loudness measurement of the whole program, while a dB peak reading only shows the loudest instant.
What is the difference between LUFS and LKFS?
None in value: both are BS.1770 loudness measured against full scale. EBU documents say LUFS; ITU and US broadcast documents say LKFS.
Should I master to -14 LUFS?
Not necessarily. Spotify turns louder masters down to -14 anyway, so mastering hotter gains nothing there, but many genres are mastered louder for other outlets. Aim for the best-sounding master and check how it normalizes.
Is -23 LUFS too quiet?
For TV it is the European standard. For social video and podcasts it sounds quiet next to other content, which is why online targets sit around -14 to -16.
Let Koldflux pick the settings
Koldflux chooses the codec, container and bitrate for each platform when it exports.
Free tools that use this
Sources and how we checked
- Spotify for Artists: Loudness normalization on Spotify (checked 2026-10-05)
- Apple Podcasts for Creators: Audio requirements (checked 2026-10-05)
- YouTube Help: Recommended upload encoding settings (checked 2026-10-05)
- EBU R 128: Loudness normalisation and permitted maximum level of audio signals (checked 2026-10-06)
- ATSC A/85: Techniques for establishing and maintaining audio loudness for digital television (checked 2026-10-06)
Reviewed October 6, 2026 by the Koldflux team. Definitions follow the specifications and platform documentation linked above; platform tables come from the same registry the Koldflux tools use.