How to avoid a Spotify 'Loudness Penalty'

By Seth Metoyer,

Until recently, I wasn't aware of what a music streaming platform 'loudness penalty' was. Sounds ominous, doesn't it? Well, it kind of is, but the good news is, it's fixable.

I uploaded my band Mangled Carpenter's extreme metal Christmas EP to Spotify (and other streaming services) a couple of weeks ago through my distributor Distrokid. I engineered the album and had the mix and master exactly where I wanted them. I like to produce on the louder side, with my peak levels higher, yet always in the correct range for all listening devices (no one wants their speakers blown out).

Fast forward to a few days ago and while listening to my album on Spotify, I noticed something odd. A particular song sounded a lot lower to me than the high-quality 24-bit .wav files I uploaded. Initially, I thought maybe I was just more sound sensitive to the song because I'd listened to them so many times and spotted the relatively small, yet to me, very obvious decrease in volume.

I started digging around online and found what has been coined a 'loudness penalty'.

What is a Loudness Penalty and why does this matter?

Why is it called a "penalty"? Well, because it is! Online streaming services measure loudness and turn down loud music to avoid "blasting" listeners with sudden changes in loudness. This level reduction has been termed "Loudness Penalty" - the lower the LP numbers, the more your music will be turned down to match other songs.

For example, a Loudness Penalty of -2.4 on Spotify means your song will be played back 2.4 dB quieter than its original loudness.

Streaming services apply loudness normalization so the user doesn't have to, but unfortunately, their process can affect the dynamics of the overall sound.

I ran a few new songs through this 'loudness penalty analyzer' and sure enough, Spotify and other streaming sites were set to decrease one particular song by up to 7 decibels!

As you can see in the above screengrab, all streaming services had a loudness penalty of around -7.5 decibels for one of my songs. What does that mean for your music? Well, it means they will lower the volume and even though the services say it won't affect your sound quality, it does!

Engineers like myself spend a lot of time mixing a song to get it at its peak performance and to sound wide and sonic. The equalizers and limiters these services are implementing make the songs sound compressed and not as dynamic.

Enter LUFS correction.

What the heck is LUFS?

LUFS simply stands for ‘Loudness Units Full Scale’ and it's the modern standard for measuring loudness in music and other audio. It's basically how radio, TV, and now streaming platforms make sure all songs are metered evenly so no one audio or song is extremely louder than others.

Everyone wants a clean, loud, and polished master. Spotify for example wants music to be as close to -14 LUFS as possible across the entire song. A good rule of thumb is to get a song in the arena of -13 to -15 LUFS, then run the song through a Loudness Meter like the one here, and it will tell you how loud or soft your song is within the appropriate levels for each streaming service.

The closer to 0 on the scale, the better. I've had a few songs that were -0.2 or + 0.3 and that is pretty darn close to what these streaming sites need and they won't do much in the way of leveling out the song or destroying the song dynamics. That is why it's important to utilize the Loudness Penalty analyzer because some songs LUFS can be -12 and still need to be increased in decibels to reach the desired streaming levels.

What's the solution?

I did some research and came across a LUFS meter and loudness plugin that I really like. It's called WLM Plus Loudness Meter from WAVS.

The plug-in is fairly straightforward and easy to use, although I had to watch their accompanying video a couple of times to understand the full process in detail. I added the video below for anyone interested in scoping it out.

After I ran the loudness meter plugin, I was able to adjust my song to the proper levels needed for the streaming platforms I am uploading to. As you can see in the image below, I was able to find the sweet spot at -14 LUFS fairly easily. On a few songs I had to increase the decibels, and in other songs, I had to decrease to get the desired loudness levels.

Another crucial aspect that I found while doing my research has to do with "True Peak" levels. It is recommended that the "true peak max" of any given song going on streaming platforms is -1.0. The WLM Plus Loudness Meter comes with a very cool "True Peak Limiter". When turned on and set to a maximum of -1.0, you can be confident that your audio will not exceed that crucial maximum level of -1.0 which would cause streaming platforms to "clip" your audio. And you don't want that.

The only real complaint I have with the plugin is that it uses a lot of computer resources and unfortunately, it has crashed a few times. For my standard go-to DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) I use Magix Acid Pro 9, for the simple reason that I've used their software for over a decade and even though I have other DAWS like Pro Tools, Cubase, Studio One, and Reaper, etc., I am most comfortable with the Acid Pro workflow. I'm not sure if those issues are prevalent in other DAWS or not. I plan to eventually test them out for future reference.

Success!

You can see in the screengrab below, that after I utilized the loudness meter plugin from Waves Audio and adjusted the levels, I was able to hit the marks on the "loudness penalty" meter with extreme accuracy.

Onward and Upward

I hope this helps some of you who are curious about or needed a little help with understanding the proper loudness levels and potential "loudness penalties" for your music on streaming platforms.

If this is something beyond your expertise, hit me up and I would be happy to discuss how I can help you get your audio mastered to the proper loudness levels for streaming platforms. Just shoot me an email at metoyermedia@gmail.com.