Master·4 / 4
Mastering and the loudness war
~5 min read
Mastering is the final polish: gluing the mix together with stereo-bus processing, ensuring it translates on every system, and setting final loudness.
Modern streaming platforms normalize loudness around -14 LUFS (integrated). Pushing louder than that buys you nothing - it just sacrifices dynamic range.
| Platform | Target LUFS |
|---|---|
| Spotify | -14 LUFS |
| Apple Music | -16 LUFS |
| YouTube | -14 LUFS |
| TIDAL | -14 LUFS |