SPOTIFY DISABLES YOUR LIMITER
The joy couldn't be greater. Spotify no longer uses a limiter after increasing it! The streaming provider Spotify was the only provider that had previously switched on a limiter after increasing quiet titles in order to absorb level peaks that go beyond -1dbTP. This should be over now!
WHY DOES SPOTIFY USE A LIMITER?
Spotify was fundamentally interested in not allowing any distortion in the playback of songs that were mastered quieter than theirs Specifications for upload when streaming demanded it. But that's all over now! If the setting "Set the same volume level for all songs" is activated, it will no longer be normalized to -1dbTP. Yay, wonderful... But what does that mean exactly?
NO LIMITATIONS ON DYNAMIC SONGS ON SPOTIFY
The normalization loudness on Spotify is by default -14 LUfs for all, unless you have deactivated this setting. But if you consider that so far only 17% of Spotify users have deactivated this setting, you still have 83% who use exactly this normalization of your songs.
Premium users, on the other hand, have a few more setting options for loudness:
| Quiet | -23 LUFS |
| Normal | -14 LUFS |
| According to the | -11 LUFS |
Quiet: Ideal for a perfect listening environment with high dynamic reproduction
Normal: Standard setting and ok for most users.
According to the: Setting to still be able to enjoy the music in a noisy environment. Here Spotify CONTINUES to use a level increase and subsequent limiting to avoid overloading of quieter material than -11 LUfs. Songs that are already uploaded louder than -11 LUfs on Spotify will remain unaffected as before.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR MY SONGS?
As we have already learned, Spotify is not interested in avoiding clipping in the “Quiet” and “Normal” settings. In future, the loudness will no longer be increased for songs quieter than -14 LUfs!
The following example:
We have a song that is very dynamic. This has an average loudness over the entire reproduction of -16 LUfs with a TP of -0,5 dbTP.
With the current regulation nothing will be changed in the title. So it is played exactly as it is uploaded.
But BE CAREFUL: If the TruePeak values are not adhered to, clipping may occur when Spotify converts to other playback formats. With dynamic songs, it will be even more important to pay attention to the TruePeak values when exporting and uploading!
WE MAKE YOUR SONG STREAMING READY!
We not only pay attention to the technical specifications of the providers, but can also preview your song in all codexes that the streaming providers use and adapt them accordingly!
OUR OPINION ON SWITCHING OFF THE LIMITER
We see this change as being absolutely positive. So far, Spotify has also been the only provider of the one Limiter after raising the level. As a result, the specifications are becoming more and more uniform. If you think back to the last few years, when every streaming provider had agreed what they wanted.
Due to the more and more uniform upload specifications, it will also be for the artist, the our recording studio and later that mastering engineer always be a simpler one online mastering for streaming to create providers.
