Free LUFS Checker — Too Loud for Spotify?
Upload your master, get integrated LUFS and true peak — checked against the Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music targets, with the exact dB your track gets turned down. Free, about 60 seconds, no card.
Platform loudness targets (2026)
What you get
Integrated LUFS, measured
The full-track loudness number platforms actually use for normalization — measured from your audio, not estimated.
True peak in dBTP
Inter-sample peaks above -1.0 dBTP can distort after platform transcoding. You see your ceiling before the platform finds it.
Per-platform verdict
Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music each get a check or the exact delta — 'turned down by 2.3 dB' instead of a vague warning.
Dynamics context
The same analysis shows your energy profile, so you can judge whether loudness cost you the chorus lift — the real remaster question.
Over target? Your three options
The platform turns you down and the track plays fine. This is the right call when your quiet-loud contrast is intact and only the number is high.
When loudness cost you the chorus lift, remastering 2–3 dB quieter gives you the same playback level after normalization, with more punch. The energy profile in your result shows whether this is you.
Inter-sample peaks above -1.0 dBTP can distort after the platform's lossy transcoding regardless of LUFS. If the checker flags your ceiling, this one is not optional.
How it works
MP3 or WAV — WAV gives the truest peak reading. Full track, 30 seconds minimum.
Integrated LUFS over the whole track plus true peak, computed from the waveform the way the platforms do it.
Your result shows Spotify, YouTube and Apple side by side — inside target, or off by exactly how many dB.
Common questions
LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) is how streaming platforms measure the perceived loudness of your track. Every major platform normalizes playback to a target — Spotify and YouTube around -14 LUFS, Apple Music at -16. Master louder than the target and the platform simply turns your track down.
No. Normalization means a track mastered at -8 LUFS plays back at the same perceived level as one mastered at -14 — except the -8 master sacrificed dynamic range to get there and now sounds flatter than its neighbors. Loudness wars logic died with normalization.
Integrated LUFS over the full track and true peak in dBTP, measured from your uploaded audio. The result shows a per-platform verdict for Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music: a checkmark when you're inside the target, or the exact dB delta the platform will turn you down (or up) by.
For most releases: around -14 LUFS integrated with true peak under -1.0 dBTP covers Spotify, YouTube and TikTok in one master. If Apple Music is your priority platform, -16 is its Sound Check target. What matters most is not clipping the true peak ceiling — inter-sample peaks above -1 dBTP can distort after the platform's transcoding.
Not necessarily — the platform will turn it down and it will play fine. Remastering is worth it when the loudness came at the cost of dynamics: if your chorus no longer opens up because the limiter flattened it, backing off gives you the same playback level with more punch. The checker tells you the delta; the Song DNA report shows the energy profile that tells you whether dynamics suffered.
Related guides & tools
Check your master before the platforms do
Integrated LUFS, true peak, per-platform verdicts — plus everything else the analysis finds. Free, about 60 seconds, no card.
Check My LUFS →