Streaming loudness

Mastering for Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and TikTok

Every streaming platform normalizes playback loudness, so a master crushed for level just loses dynamics without getting louder. MixTrackLab masters to a loudness target you choose, measures integrated LUFS and true peak after every pass, and keeps the peaks safe for lossy encoding.

Open the studioSee how it works

The workflow

  1. STEP 1

    Choose the target

    Streaming, Radio, Club, Modern Pop, Warm, or Clean.

  2. STEP 2

    Master

    Multiband dynamics, tonal shaping, imaging, and a true-peak limiter.

  3. STEP 3

    Measure

    Integrated LUFS, short-term, loudness range, and true peak.

  4. STEP 4

    Export

    24-bit WAV, true-peak safe, ready to upload to any distributor.

What the platforms actually do

Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and TikTok all play back at a normalized level, turning louder masters down. A master pushed several dB past the target arrives at the listener at the same loudness as a well-controlled one — only flatter, with less punch and more distortion. The winning move is control, not level.

True peak, not sample peak

Streaming services transcode to lossy formats, and that process can push a 0 dBFS master above full scale on playback. MixTrackLab measures true peak with oversampling and holds a ceiling with headroom, so nothing clips after encoding.

Check it before you distribute

After every master you get the numbers that matter — integrated loudness, loudness range, crest factor, and true peak — plus a quality check for harshness and over-compression that re-renders instead of shipping a fatiguing master. Preview all of it free; pay only when you export.

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