Public reference

Platform delivery targets

What each service wants, what it does to your file, and how much of that the service actually publishes. Generated from the same file the engine masters against, so this page cannot drift away from the tool. Last checked 2026-08-07.

Link to it, quote it, correct it. If one of these figures is wrong we would rather hear about it than keep mastering against it.

A value marked consensus is not published by the platform and may be wrong.
Platform	Target	True peak	Codec	Normalises	Confidence	Source	What that means
Spotify	-14 LUFS	-1.0 dBTP	libvorbis 320k	yes	primary	Spotify for Artists	Spotify normalises to -14 LUFS and publishes the figure itself. Listeners can override it: Loud -11, Normal -14, Quiet -19. Spotify's own guidance is to stay under -1 dBTP for a master at -14 LUFS, and under -2 dBTP for anything louder.
Apple Music	-16 LUFS	-1.0 dBTP	aac 256k	yes	consensus	not published	Apple publishes no LUFS figure at all. The -16 LUFS everyone quotes for Sound Check is industry consensus, not documentation. Treat it as an estimate, because that is what it is.
YouTube / YouTube Music	-14 LUFS	-1.0 dBTP	libopus 128k	yes	consensus	not published	YouTube only ever turns tracks down, never up. A track quieter than the target stays quiet, which is the one case where mastering conservatively costs you something real.
TikTok / Reels / Shorts	-14 LUFS	-1.0 dBTP	aac 192k	no	consensus	not published	The feed does not normalise, so a louder upload really is louder here. We still deliver at -14 LUFS with a safe true peak, because pushing lossy source material harder buys distortion on phone speakers rather than loudness.
Amazon Music	-14 LUFS	-2.0 dBTP	aac 256k	yes	consensus	not published	Asks for -2 dBTP where everyone else accepts -1 dBTP. A master aimed at -1 dBTP structurally cannot satisfy Amazon, and we would rather say that than quietly mark it green.
SoundCloud / Bandcamp	-14 LUFS	-1.0 dBTP	libmp3lame 320k	no	consensus	not published	No normalisation is documented, so the master plays back exactly as loud as you delivered it.

Confidence. The platform publishes this number itself. The platform publishes no number. This is the industry figure, and it may be wrong. Of the 6 platforms here, 1 publishes its own figure. The rest are industry values, and every master made against them inherits whatever error is in them.

Per platform

Detail, with an anchor each

Spotify

Loudness target: -14 LUFSprimary
True peak: -1.0 dBTPprimary
Codec: libvorbis320k, .ogg
Normalises: yesplayback level is set by the platform, not by you
Receives the master: via distributorgets a vote on the master's ceiling

Spotify normalises to -14 LUFS and publishes the figure itself. Listeners can override it: Loud -11, Normal -14, Quiet -19. Spotify's own guidance is to stay under -1 dBTP for a master at -14 LUFS, and under -2 dBTP for anything louder.

Source. https://support.spotify.com/us/artists/article/loudness-normalization/ Checked 2026-08-07. Encoder speed: fast enough to measure on a whole track.

Apple Music

Loudness target: -16 LUFSconsensus
True peak: -1.0 dBTPconsensus
Codec: aac256k, .m4a
Normalises: yesplayback level is set by the platform, not by you
Receives the master: via distributorgets a vote on the master's ceiling

Apple publishes no LUFS figure at all. The -16 LUFS everyone quotes for Sound Check is industry consensus, not documentation. Treat it as an estimate, because that is what it is.

Source. https://www.apple.com/apple-music/apple-digital-masters/ Checked 2026-08-07. Encoder speed: slow, so long tracks are measured on their loudest passages and the report says so.

YouTube / YouTube Music

Loudness target: -14 LUFSconsensus
True peak: -1.0 dBTPconsensus
Codec: libopus128k, .opus
Normalises: yesplayback level is set by the platform, not by you
Receives the master: via distributorgets a vote on the master's ceiling

YouTube only ever turns tracks down, never up. A track quieter than the target stays quiet, which is the one case where mastering conservatively costs you something real.

Source. not published Checked 2026-08-07. Encoder speed: fast enough to measure on a whole track.

TikTok / Reels / Shorts

Loudness target: -14 LUFSconsensus
True peak: -1.0 dBTPconsensus
Codec: aac192k, .m4a
Normalises: noplayback level is exactly what you delivered
Receives the master: direct uploadgets its own render, so it cannot cost you loudness elsewhere

The feed does not normalise, so a louder upload really is louder here. We still deliver at -14 LUFS with a safe true peak, because pushing lossy source material harder buys distortion on phone speakers rather than loudness.

Source. not published Checked 2026-08-07. Encoder speed: slow, so long tracks are measured on their loudest passages and the report says so.

Amazon Music

Loudness target: -14 LUFSconsensus
True peak: -2.0 dBTPconsensus
Codec: aac256k, .m4a
Normalises: yesplayback level is set by the platform, not by you
Receives the master: via distributorgets a vote on the master's ceiling

Asks for -2 dBTP where everyone else accepts -1 dBTP. A master aimed at -1 dBTP structurally cannot satisfy Amazon, and we would rather say that than quietly mark it green.

Source. not published Checked 2026-08-07. Encoder speed: slow, so long tracks are measured on their loudest passages and the report says so.

SoundCloud / Bandcamp

Loudness target: -14 LUFSconsensus
True peak: -1.0 dBTPconsensus
Codec: libmp3lame320k, .mp3
Normalises: noplayback level is exactly what you delivered
Receives the master: direct uploadgets its own render, so it cannot cost you loudness elsewhere

No normalisation is documented, so the master plays back exactly as loud as you delivered it.

Source. not published Checked 2026-08-07. Encoder speed: fast enough to measure on a whole track.

Why this matters

A target is not a promise about what the listener hears

Every figure above describes the file you hand over. The file that reaches the listener has been through the codec in the fourth column, and that codec moves the peaks. On the demo dataset the largest lift was +0.86 dB.

See the measurement Master a track

Verdicts used on this site: ok within the platform's own true-peak limit. tight under full scale, but above the true peak this platform asks for. no margin left. clips above 0 dbtp after the codec. this distorts audibly.