Guide · Streaming readiness
The release checklist platforms judge before people do
Most of what determines how a record performs in its first week is decided before anyone hears it: loudness, headroom, intro length and metadata. None of it is creative, all of it is fixable, and all of it is routinely skipped.
Loudness normalization, explained once and properly
Streaming platforms play everything back at roughly the same perceived volume. A master pushed to -6 LUFS is turned down on playback to sit next to a -14 LUFS master. You do not win the loudness war; you only keep the limiting artifacts you paid for it with — flattened transients, pumping and a smaller-sounding record.
Choose loudness for the music. Dense electronic and hip-hop records tolerate -9 to -8 LUFS. Acoustic, jazz and orchestral material usually sounds larger at -16 to -13 because the dynamic range survives.
True peak, codecs and why clean masters still distort
Sample-peak meters read the digital samples; true-peak meters reconstruct the analogue waveform between them, which can exceed the highest sample. Lossy transcoding then adds its own overshoot. This is why a master that reads exactly 0.0 dBFS arrives on Spotify with audible crackle on the loudest hits.
Set the ceiling at -1 dBTP as the default and -1.5 dBTP for very dense masters. Verify with a true-peak meter after the final limiter, not before it.
Structure decisions that are really distribution decisions
Skip rate inside the first 30 seconds is one of the strongest signals a track sends. That makes intro length a technical parameter as much as a creative one. Four to eight bars is the working default; anything longer needs to earn itself with motion, not atmosphere.
Trim leading silence to a handful of milliseconds, fade the tail deliberately, and if the release is a continuous project, ask your distributor for gapless delivery explicitly — it is rarely the default.
The pre-delivery checklist
- Integrated loudness between -14 and -9 LUFS, chosen for the genre and not for the meter
- True peak at or below -1 dBTP, measured with a true-peak meter, not a sample-peak meter
- Mono-compatible: no cancellation of key elements when summed
- Central idea audible inside the first 15 seconds
- No dead air at the head; a clean, intentional tail with no abrupt truncation
- 24-bit WAV delivered to the distributor, never an MP3 re-encode
- ISRC assigned per recording, and the same ISRC reused for re-releases of the same master
- Artist name spelled identically to previous releases, character for character
- Writer and publisher splits agreed in writing before the release date
- Artwork 3000x3000 px, no URLs, no logos of platforms, text legible at thumbnail size
Common questions
- What LUFS should I master to for streaming?
- Most platforms normalize playback to around -14 LUFS integrated. Mastering far louder does not make you louder on stream — it gets turned down, and you keep the distortion. Between -14 and -9 LUFS with true peaks at or below -1 dBTP is a safe, competitive window for most genres.
- Why -1 dBTP instead of 0?
- Streaming services transcode to lossy formats (AAC, Ogg Vorbis), and those codecs can overshoot the original peak by a decibel or more. A master that peaks at 0 dBFS will clip after transcoding even though it measured clean.
- Does a long intro really hurt?
- Yes, mechanically. A play typically only counts after about 30 seconds, and skip rate in the first 30 seconds is a strong input to editorial and algorithmic consideration. A 20-second intro spends two thirds of that window before the song begins.
- What metadata actually matters?
- Consistent artist name spelling across every release, correct ISRC per recording, correct writer and publisher splits registered before release, explicit flag set accurately, and artwork at 3000x3000 px with no URLs or social handles. Mismatched artist spellings split your profile and your royalties.
Check a master
Use the free mastering preview and key & BPM finder, then run the full analysis for a streaming readiness score with specifics.