[OC] I Analyzed 250+ Audio Streams to Break Myths: Here’s How Loudness and Dynamics Levels Differ Across Spotify, YouTube (Podcasts, Music), Apple Music, and AI Music Services
[OC] I Analyzed 250+ Audio Streams to Break Myths: Here’s How Loudness and Dynamics Levels Differ Across Spotify, YouTube (Podcasts, Music), Apple Music, and AI Music Services
So you are a new content creator and you have your music or podcast.
Thing is: if you music is too quiet a playlist will play and your music will be noticeably quieter. Thats annoying.
If you have a podcast the audience will set their volume and your podcast will be too loud or too quiet.. you lose audience.
If you are seriously following content creation you will unavoidable come to audio mastering and the question how loud should your content be. unless you pay a sound engineer. Those guys know the standards, right?.. right?
lets be straight right from the start: there arent really any useful standards.. the ones there are are not enforced and if you follow them you lose. Also the “official” information that is out there is wrong.
Whats the answer? ill tell you. I did the legwork so you dont have to!
**Background**
when you are producing digital content (music, podcasts, etc) at some point you WILL come across the question “how loud will my audio be?”.
This is part of the audio mastering process.
There is great debate in the internet about this and little reliable information. Turns out there isnt a standard for the internet on this.
Everyone basically makes his own rules. Music audio engineers want to make their music as loud as possible in order to be noticed. Also louder music sounds better as you hear all the instruments and tones.
This lead to something called “loudness war” (google it).
So how is “loud” measured? its a bit confusing: the unit is called Decibel (dB) BUT decibel is not an absolute unit (yeah i know… i know) it always needs a point of reference.
For loudness the measurement is done in LUFS, which uses as reference the maximum possible loudness of digital media and is calculated based on the perceived human hearing(psychoacoustic model).
Three dB is double as “powerful” but a human needs about 10dB more power to perceive it as “double as loud”.
The “maximum possible loudness” is 0LUFS. From there you count down. So all LUFS values are negative: one dB below 0 is -1LUFS. -2LUFS is quieter. -24LUFS is even quieter and so on.
when measuring an audio piece you usually use “integrated LUFS (LUFSi)” which a fancy way of saying “average LUFS across my audio”
**Standards**
if you google then there is LOTs of controversial information on the internet… ill go step by step.
**EBUr128**: There is one standard i came across: EBU128. An standard by the EU for all radio and TV stations to normalize to -24 LUFSi.
Thats pretty quiet.
**Loudness Range (LRA)**: basically measures the dynamic range of the audio.
ELI5: a low value says there is always the same loudness level. A high value says there are quiet passages then LOUD passages.
Too much LRA and you are giving away loudness. too litle and its tiresome. There is no right or wrong. depends fully on the audio.
**Data collection**
I collected audio in the main areas for content creators.
From each area i made sure to get around 25 audio files to have a nice sample size. The tested areas are:
Music: Apple Music
Music: Spotify
Music: AI-generated music
Youtube: music chart hits
Youtube: Podcasts
Youtube: Gaming streamers
Youtube: Learning Channels
Music: my own music normalized to EBUr128 reccomendation (-23LUFSi)
MUSIC
Apple Music: I used a couple of albums from my itunes library. I used “Apple Digital Master” albums to make sure that i am getting Apples own mastering settings.
Spotify: I used a latin music playlist.
AI-Generated Music: I use regularly Suno and Udio to create music. I used songs from my own library.
Youtube Music: For a feel of the current loudness of youtube music i analyzed tracks on the trending list of youtube. This is found in Youtube->Music->The Hit List. Its a automatic playlist described as “the home of todays biggest and hottest hits”. Basically the trending videos of today. The link i got is based of course on the day i measured and i think also on the country i am located at. The artists were some local artists and also some world ranking artists from all genres. [1]
Youtube Podcasts, Gaming and Learning: I downloaded and measured 5 of the most popular podcasts from Youtubes “Most Popular” sections for each category. I chose from each section channels with more than 3Million subscribers. From each i analyzed the latest 5 videos. I chose channels from around the world but mostly from the US.
**Data analysis**
I used ffmpeg and the free version of Youlean loudness meter2 (YLM2) to analyze the integrated loudness and loudness range of each audio. I wrote a custom tool to go through my offline music files and for online streaming, i setup a virtual machine with YLM2 measuring the stream.
Then put all values in a table and calculated the average and standard deviation.
**RESULTS**
**Apple Music**: has a document on mastering [5] but it does not say wether they normalize the audio. They advice for you to master it to what you think sounds best.
The music i measured all was about -8,7LUFSi with little deviation.
**Spotify**: has an official page stating they will normalize down to -14 LUFSi [3]. Premium users can then increase to 11 or 19LUFS on the player. The measured values show something different: The average LUFSi was -8.8 with some moderate to little deviation.
**AI Music**: Suno and Udio(-11.5) deliver normalized audio at different levels, with Suno(-15.9) being quieter. This is critical. One motivation to measure all this was that i noticed at parties that my music was a) way lower than professional music and b) it would be inconsistently in volume. That isnt very noticeable on earbuds but it gets very annoying for listeners when the music is played on a loud system.
**Youtube Music**: Youtube music was LOUD averaging -9LUFS with little to moderate deviation.
**Youtube Podcasts, Gamin, Learning**: Speech based content (learning, gaming) hovers around -16LUFSi with talk based podcasts are a bit louder (not much) at -14. Here people come to relax.. so i guess you arent fighting for attention. Also some podcasts were like 3 hours long (who hears that??).
**Your own music on youtube**
When you google it, EVERYBODY will tell you YT has a LUFS target of -14. Even ChatGPT is sure of it. I could not find a single official source for that claim. I only found one page from youtube support from some years ago saying that YT will NOT normalize your audio [2]. Not louder and not quieter. Now i can confirm this is the truth!
I uploaded my own music videos normalized to EBUr128 (-23LUFSi) to youtube and they stayed there. Whatever you upload will remain at the loudness you (miss)mastered it to. Seeing that all professional music
Means my poor EBUe128-normalized videos would be barely audible next to anything from the charts.
While i dont like making things louder for the sake of it… at this point i would advice music creators to master to what they think its right but to upload at least -10LUFS copy to online services. Is this the right advice? i dont know. currently it seems so. The thing is: you cant just go “-3LUFS”.. at some point distortion is unavoidable. In my limited experience this start to happen at -10LUFS and up.
**Summary**
**Music**: All online music is loud. No matter what their official policy is or rumours: it its around -9LUFS with little variance (1-2LUFS StdDev). Bottom line: if you produce online music and want to stay competitive with the big charts, see to normalize at around -9LUFS. That might be difficult to achieve without audio mastering skills. I reccomend easing to -10.
Dont just blindly go loud. your ears and artistic sense first.
**Talk based:** gaming, learning or conversational podcasts sit in average at -16LUFS. so pretty tame but the audience is not there to be shocked but to listen and relax.
1 Comment
**How loud is it?**
[Additional image with data values](https://imgur.com/a/8JpcvVB)
So you are a new content creator and you have your music or podcast.
Thing is: if you music is too quiet a playlist will play and your music will be noticeably quieter. Thats annoying.
If you have a podcast the audience will set their volume and your podcast will be too loud or too quiet.. you lose audience.
If you are seriously following content creation you will unavoidable come to audio mastering and the question how loud should your content be. unless you pay a sound engineer. Those guys know the standards, right?.. right?
lets be straight right from the start: there arent really any useful standards.. the ones there are are not enforced and if you follow them you lose. Also the “official” information that is out there is wrong.
Whats the answer? ill tell you. I did the legwork so you dont have to!
**Background**
when you are producing digital content (music, podcasts, etc) at some point you WILL come across the question “how loud will my audio be?”.
This is part of the audio mastering process.
There is great debate in the internet about this and little reliable information. Turns out there isnt a standard for the internet on this.
Everyone basically makes his own rules. Music audio engineers want to make their music as loud as possible in order to be noticed. Also louder music sounds better as you hear all the instruments and tones.
This lead to something called “loudness war” (google it).
So how is “loud” measured? its a bit confusing: the unit is called Decibel (dB) BUT decibel is not an absolute unit (yeah i know… i know) it always needs a point of reference.
For loudness the measurement is done in LUFS, which uses as reference the maximum possible loudness of digital media and is calculated based on the perceived human hearing(psychoacoustic model).
Three dB is double as “powerful” but a human needs about 10dB more power to perceive it as “double as loud”.
The “maximum possible loudness” is 0LUFS. From there you count down. So all LUFS values are negative: one dB below 0 is -1LUFS. -2LUFS is quieter. -24LUFS is even quieter and so on.
when measuring an audio piece you usually use “integrated LUFS (LUFSi)” which a fancy way of saying “average LUFS across my audio”
**Standards**
if you google then there is LOTs of controversial information on the internet… ill go step by step.
**EBUr128**: There is one standard i came across: EBU128. An standard by the EU for all radio and TV stations to normalize to -24 LUFSi.
Thats pretty quiet.
**Loudness Range (LRA)**: basically measures the dynamic range of the audio.
ELI5: a low value says there is always the same loudness level. A high value says there are quiet passages then LOUD passages.
Too much LRA and you are giving away loudness. too litle and its tiresome. There is no right or wrong. depends fully on the audio.
**Data collection**
I collected audio in the main areas for content creators.
From each area i made sure to get around 25 audio files to have a nice sample size. The tested areas are:
Music: Apple Music
Music: Spotify
Music: AI-generated music
Youtube: music chart hits
Youtube: Podcasts
Youtube: Gaming streamers
Youtube: Learning Channels
Music: my own music normalized to EBUr128 reccomendation (-23LUFSi)
MUSIC
Apple Music: I used a couple of albums from my itunes library. I used “Apple Digital Master” albums to make sure that i am getting Apples own mastering settings.
Spotify: I used a latin music playlist.
AI-Generated Music: I use regularly Suno and Udio to create music. I used songs from my own library.
Youtube Music: For a feel of the current loudness of youtube music i analyzed tracks on the trending list of youtube. This is found in Youtube->Music->The Hit List. Its a automatic playlist described as “the home of todays biggest and hottest hits”. Basically the trending videos of today. The link i got is based of course on the day i measured and i think also on the country i am located at. The artists were some local artists and also some world ranking artists from all genres. [1]
Youtube Podcasts, Gaming and Learning: I downloaded and measured 5 of the most popular podcasts from Youtubes “Most Popular” sections for each category. I chose from each section channels with more than 3Million subscribers. From each i analyzed the latest 5 videos. I chose channels from around the world but mostly from the US.
**Data analysis**
I used ffmpeg and the free version of Youlean loudness meter2 (YLM2) to analyze the integrated loudness and loudness range of each audio. I wrote a custom tool to go through my offline music files and for online streaming, i setup a virtual machine with YLM2 measuring the stream.
Then put all values in a table and calculated the average and standard deviation.
**RESULTS**
**Apple Music**: has a document on mastering [5] but it does not say wether they normalize the audio. They advice for you to master it to what you think sounds best.
The music i measured all was about -8,7LUFSi with little deviation.
**Spotify**: has an official page stating they will normalize down to -14 LUFSi [3]. Premium users can then increase to 11 or 19LUFS on the player. The measured values show something different: The average LUFSi was -8.8 with some moderate to little deviation.
**AI Music**: Suno and Udio(-11.5) deliver normalized audio at different levels, with Suno(-15.9) being quieter. This is critical. One motivation to measure all this was that i noticed at parties that my music was a) way lower than professional music and b) it would be inconsistently in volume. That isnt very noticeable on earbuds but it gets very annoying for listeners when the music is played on a loud system.
**Youtube Music**: Youtube music was LOUD averaging -9LUFS with little to moderate deviation.
**Youtube Podcasts, Gamin, Learning**: Speech based content (learning, gaming) hovers around -16LUFSi with talk based podcasts are a bit louder (not much) at -14. Here people come to relax.. so i guess you arent fighting for attention. Also some podcasts were like 3 hours long (who hears that??).
**Your own music on youtube**
When you google it, EVERYBODY will tell you YT has a LUFS target of -14. Even ChatGPT is sure of it. I could not find a single official source for that claim. I only found one page from youtube support from some years ago saying that YT will NOT normalize your audio [2]. Not louder and not quieter. Now i can confirm this is the truth!
I uploaded my own music videos normalized to EBUr128 (-23LUFSi) to youtube and they stayed there. Whatever you upload will remain at the loudness you (miss)mastered it to. Seeing that all professional music
Means my poor EBUe128-normalized videos would be barely audible next to anything from the charts.
While i dont like making things louder for the sake of it… at this point i would advice music creators to master to what they think its right but to upload at least -10LUFS copy to online services. Is this the right advice? i dont know. currently it seems so. The thing is: you cant just go “-3LUFS”.. at some point distortion is unavoidable. In my limited experience this start to happen at -10LUFS and up.
**Summary**
**Music**: All online music is loud. No matter what their official policy is or rumours: it its around -9LUFS with little variance (1-2LUFS StdDev). Bottom line: if you produce online music and want to stay competitive with the big charts, see to normalize at around -9LUFS. That might be difficult to achieve without audio mastering skills. I reccomend easing to -10.
Dont just blindly go loud. your ears and artistic sense first.
**Talk based:** gaming, learning or conversational podcasts sit in average at -16LUFS. so pretty tame but the audience is not there to be shocked but to listen and relax.
[1]
Youtube Hits:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=RDCLAK5uy_n7Y4Fp2-4cjm5UUvSZwdRaiZowRs5Tcz0&playnext=1&index=1
[2]
Youtube does not normalize:
https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/thread/106636370
[3]
Spotify officially normalizes to -14LUFS:
https://support.spotify.com/us/artists/article/loudness-normalization/
[5] Apple Mastering
https://www.apple.com/apple-music/apple-digital-masters/docs/apple-digital-masters.pdf