Loudness Standards for Streaming Platforms

The music industry has been in a technological arms race for almost 10 years. By this, I'm referring to the myth that refers to Pop music and that loud songs equate to selling more records, specifically for CD sales. This is the Loudness War. To put into reference, Justin Bieber's latest CD is louder than AC/DC, Motorhead and The Sex Pistols (What is the Loudness War, 2011). But... having the loudest song doesn't necessarily mean it is going to top the charts or sell the most records. I think it can be more damaging to a song because if it is not mastered with care and to a certain standard and is simply slammed into a limiter to make it loud, that song will not only loose a lot of it's dynamics, but it will also have a noticeable amount of distortion due to excessive brick wall limiting.

Appendix A - Metallica's "Death Magnetic" CD mix vs Guitar Hero Mix (TV Tropes, 2019)

Audio levels are measured in two main ways: Peak and RMS. Peak is a way of measuring the absolute loudest point in audio waves and RMS calculates the average volume over time (Sweetwater, 2019). Our ears relate closer to RMS than peak value. Craig Anderton explains RMS by comparing a snare drum and a power chord that has a long sustain; a snare drums hit has a high dB peak with a short sustain and release, but a power chord can has a longer sustain, resulting in RMS (our ears) perceiving it as being louder even though it's dB peak doesn't come anywhere near the level of the snare hit. This means that during the mixing stage, if you balance the amplitude of the snare and power chord so that their RMS levels are closer related (rather than true peak), they will fit better in correlation to one another in terms of loudness.

Music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Youtube, Amazon and Tidal to name a few all have requirements/recommended loudness standards; these are known as LUFS. 'LUFS' stands for Loudness Units per Full Scale, which in turn is used to measure the perceived loudness of a piece of audio and analyses the average level over time (Sweetwater, 2019). LUFS are calculated by software that analyses the peak and RMS in real time as the song is being played through. LUFS are measured in a way where the the closer to 0 the reading is, the louder it is perceived; -8 LUFS is louder and -14LUFS. All of the above named platforms normalise all audio to -14LUFS on playback, this is done because a consumer may be listening to a quiet, soulful jazz instrumental and if the next song that comes on in their playlist is a heavy metal rock band (interesting playlist choice...) the listener won't be reaching for the volume button because the difference of perceived loudness is so drastic.

*Side note: YouTube previously standardised it's levels to -13 LUFS up until the start of September, 2019* (Meterplugs, 2019)

If a song is uploaded to one of said platforms that is louder than -14LUFS (e.g. -9LUFS) then it will be compressed down until the overall volume equates to their recommended level, resulting in distortion on the audio file. The same applied if a song has less than -14LUFS (e.g. -18LUFS), the platform(s) will automatically increase the overall output level of your song, which in turn changes the sound of that master file you spent so much time perfecting.

When this concept is explained visually it is much easier to understand. Images from a blog on the Mastering the Mix page describes it perfectly.

The first photo (Appendix B) is a song that has been mastered to -14 LUFS and uploaded to a streaming service, it is very dynamic and just by visually analysing the wave, you can notice that the transients are all occurring naturally and have plenty of room to breath.

Appendix B - Dynamic audio file, mastered to -14LUFS

The second photo (Appendix C) is the same song that has been mastered to -8 LUFS and uploaded to a streaming service. Due to the streaming service reduce the LUFS to -14 it has overtly compressed the audio file, resulting in the dynamics and 'character' of the transients being limited which will not only change the entire feel of the song, but also add plenty of unwanted distortion.

Appendix C - Compressed audio file, mastered at -8 LUFS and rendered to -14 for streaming playback

I mixed and mastered two live demos from a recording session that I have previously spoken bout with Fools Land Band, to help promote themselves and assist them with gaining live gigs. The two songs are titled Call Me A Man and Home, both of which are excellent in terms of composition and performance; they were a lot of fun to work with when mixing and mastering. Both of the songs were mastered to streaming platform standards because A) if they liked the live demo and thought it was of good enough quality, it is ready for all streaming platforms, and B) it's just a good industry practise to get in the habit of doing. The below images show the waveforms from two seperate versions of Home, the first is the un-mastered waveform and the second is the finished product, with the LUFS metering for both.

Appendix - Fools Land - Home

PURPLE: Unmastered

RED: Mastered

Appendix - LUFS metering for unmastered version

Appendix - LUFS metering for mastered version

I feel like loudness standards are great for the music industry; they allow for artists and producers the chance to compete with individuals which greater credentials and awards to their name. It sets a standard for all those who wish to generate their own income from streaming services whilst not having to worry about loosing streams and sales due to the so called 'loudness war'. It's also considerate that almost every streaming platform has the same LUFS rendering levels, this saves mastering engineers from having to create multiple versions of a final product to accomodate for the difference in LUFS per platforms. I feel as though the music industry as a whole, will eventually adapt and evolve to one universal level. By merging the physical and digital worlds together (although they work quite seamlessly with one another already), it will not only further close the gap between amateur and professional recordings, but it has the chance of encouraging more people to start creating their own projects and releasing them to the public.

References:

Appendix A - Loudness War - TV Tropes. (2019). TV Tropes. Retrieved 30 November 2019, from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LoudnessWar

!, M. (2011). What is the Loudness War ?. Dynamic Range Day. Retrieved 28 November 2019, from http://dynamicrangeday.co.uk/about/

What Is LUFS, and Why Should I Care? | Sweetwater. (2019). Sweetwater.com. Retrieved 30 November 2019, from https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/what-is-lufs-and-why-should-i-care/

YouTube Changes Loudness Reference to -14 LUFS. (2019). Meterplugs.com. Retrieved 30 November 2019, from https://www.meterplugs.com/blog/2019/09/18/youtube-changes-loudness-reference-to-14-lufs.html