The rise of streaming platforms has changed the rules of mastering. Understanding these standards is now an essential skill, not a mere technical detail.
What is LUFS?
LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is the unit of measurement platforms use to normalize perceived volume between tracks. Spotify, for example, normalizes around -14 integrated LUFS.
The end of the loudness war
For years, masterings aimed for ever-higher volume to stand out. With automatic streaming normalization, this approach has become counterproductive — an over-compressed mastering simply loses dynamics with no gain in perceived volume.
What we teach at Musitechnic
Students learn to measure and target these standards directly in Pro Tools, using professional loudness-metering plugins, so their final mixes are ready for real-world distribution, not just to sound good in the studio.
Launch your audio career
Discover the AEC program in sound engineering and our professional studios in Westmount.
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