Why Does My Music Sound Quiet on Streaming Platforms?

It’s common to listen to a finished track in the DAW, and it sounds great, then when it’s up on Spotify, it’s noticeably quieter than the song before and after it. Nothing is particularly wrong with the sound; it just sounds small.

This can be a really frustrating part of releasing music as an independent artist, which generally boils down to the same thing: loudness normalisation and a master that was not prepared for it.

Here is what is actually happening, and what to do about it.

Every streaming platform adjusts your volume

Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and YouTube all apply loudness normalisation. They measure the integrated loudness of every track on their platform and adjust the playback volume so that everything sounds roughly consistent to a listener moving through a playlist.

The targets are slightly different on each platform. Spotify normalises to -14 LUFS by default. Apple Music normalises to -16 LUFS. Deezer to -15 LUFS. YouTube to -14 LUFS.

If your master is louder than the platform's target, it gets turned down. If it is quieter, most platforms turn it up. The algorithm does not know or care how much time you spent on the mix - it just adjusts the volume to hit its number.

For a full breakdown of what each platform does and how to master for each one, how to master your music for streaming covers it all in detail.

So why does my track sound quiet?

If your track sounds quiet relative to other tracks on the same playlist, there are three likely causes.

Your master is below the platform's target loudness.

If your integrated loudness is sitting at -18 or -20 LUFS, most platforms will turn it up to meet their target. But the turn-up is applied to the whole track - including the noise floor, the room sound, any low-level hiss or hum. The track gets louder, but so does everything else on it. The result often sounds thin and exposed rather than loud and present.

This is the least common issue, but worth knowing about. If you are mastering to -16 LUFS for Apple Music and your track ends up at -20 LUFS because you were too conservative with your limiter, you will hear the difference.

Your master is correct, but the mix is the problem.

A master at -14 LUFS that lacks low-end weight, has no midrange presence, or has a stereo image that is too narrow will sound underwhelming at any volume. Loudness normalisation puts every track at roughly the same level - but it cannot give a flat, unbalanced mix the depth and presence of a well-mixed one.

If your track hits the right LUFS target but still sounds small, the issue is in the mix, not the master.

Your master is too loud and is getting turned down aggressively.

This is by far the most common cause, and it is the one that tends to surprise people.

Analysis of RoEx's Mix Check Studio data found that 79% of mastered tracks exceeded Spotify's recommended loudness of -14 LUFS, and 92% exceeded Apple Music's recommendation of -16 LUFS. The overwhelming majority of tracks uploaded to streaming platforms are being turned down before anyone hears them.

When a platform turns a track down, it does not simply reduce the volume. The normalisation process interacts with how the compression and limiting of the master sounds at a lower playback level. A master that was squeezed hard to reach -8 LUFS often sounds noticeably worse when pulled back down to -14 LUFS than a master that was targeted at -14 LUFS from the start. The transients that got flattened do not come back. The dynamic range that was lost does not return.

You sacrifice quality to get loudness, and then the platform takes the loudness away.

The fix

Master to the platform's target loudness. For most releases, that means -14 LUFS integrated with a true peak ceiling of -1 dBTP. This covers Spotify and YouTube without any normalisation applied, and means Apple Music and Deezer make only minor adjustments.

If your genre genuinely calls for a denser, more compressed sound (commercial pop, electronic, hip-hop) 11 LUFS is defensible. Spotify has a Loud normalisation mode at -11 LUFS that some listeners use, which means a -11 LUFS master plays untouched for those listeners.

What is not worth doing: pushing to -8 or -6 LUFS in your DAW because it sounds louder in your session. It will not sound louder to your listeners. It will sound more compressed and less dynamic than a well-mastered track that the platform does not need to touch.

For a deeper look at which LUFS target is right for your genre and how to think about the decision, What LUFS Should I Master At? covers it in full.

Check your master before you release

Before you upload, you should know the integrated LUFS and true peak of your master. Mix Check Studio analyses both, along with tonal balance, dynamic range and stereo width, and tells you in plain language whether anything needs attention. It is free and takes under a minute.

If your master comes back flagged as too loud for streaming targets, that is the moment to fix it - not after it is already live and sounding off on every platform you care about. Mix Check Studio also tells you exactly how much each major platform will turn your track up or down based on its current loudness, so there are no surprises after you distribute.

Getting the loudness right in Automix

When you master with Automix, you choose your target loudness before the engine processes your track: -9, -11 or -14 LUFS. The mastering chain - EQ, multiband dynamics, stereo refinement, true peak limiting - is calibrated around that target in a single pass.

The -14 LUFS option produces a master that Spotify and YouTube will not touch, with minimal adjustment on Apple Music and Deezer. You can preview the result before downloading, which means you can check how it actually sounds at the intended loudness before committing to it.

Automix Pro also includes Reference Match - upload a released track you want to compete with and Automix aligns your master's loudness, tone and dynamics to match it before applying your chosen target.

The short version

If your track sounds quiet on streaming platforms, the most likely cause is a master that is either too far above or too far below the platform's loudness target. Master to -14 LUFS integrated, -1 dBTP true peak. Check it in Mix Check Studio before you upload. And if the track sounds small even at the right loudness, the fix is in the mix - not the master.

For more on the history of loudness in music production and why streaming platforms ended up where they are, The Loudness War is worth a read.