Podcast Loudness Standards (LUFS) Explained

Loudness standards are the agreed targets that decide how loud your podcast sounds when someone presses play. For spoken-word podcasts, most platforms and producers aim for around -16 LUFS for stereo files (and roughly -19 LUFS for mono), with true peaks kept below -1 dBTP. Hit those numbers and your show plays at a comfortable, consistent volume next to every other podcast on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, so listeners never reach for the volume button.

The reason this matters is simple. If your episode is too quiet, people give up before the content even lands. If it is too loud or clipped, it sounds harsh and amateur on earbuds. Getting loudness right is one of the cheapest ways to sound professional, and it has nothing to do with how expensive your microphone is.

What is LUFS and why peak meters lie

LUFS stands for Loudness Units Full Scale. It measures perceived loudness, meaning how loud something actually sounds to human ears over time, not just the height of a single spike on a meter.

For years people set levels using peak meters, which only show the loudest instant of audio. The problem is two clips can have identical peaks but sound completely different in volume. A whispery voice with one sharp consonant might peak the same as a full, rich voice talking steadily. Peaks tell you nothing about average loudness, which is what listeners experience.

LUFS fixes this by averaging loudness across the whole file the way your brain does. When a platform says "we normalise to -14 LUFS," it is adjusting your average perceived loudness, not your peaks. That is why mastering to a LUFS target gives predictable results and chasing peak meters does not.

The numbers you actually need

Here are the targets that cover almost every podcast situation. Stick close to these and you will be fine across all the big platforms.

A few things to know about that table. The Apple Podcasts target of -16 LUFS is the widely used spoken-word standard and a safe default to master to. Platforms like Spotify and YouTube normalise louder content down to their own level anyway, so if you master to -16 LUFS your show stays clean everywhere and never gets pushed into distortion. The true peak ceiling of -1 dBTP leaves a little headroom so that streaming compression does not introduce clipping.

If you only remember one set of numbers, remember -16 LUFS integrated and -1 dBTP true peak for a stereo file. That is the sweet spot for a talk podcast.

Integrated, short-term and momentary loudness

When you open a loudness meter you will see three readings, and they confuse a lot of people. Here is what each one means in plain terms.

1. Momentary loudness measures roughly the last 400 milliseconds. It jumps around constantly and shows you the loudness of this exact moment.
2. Short-term loudness averages about the last 3 seconds. Useful for spotting a section that is too hot or too quiet.
3. Integrated loudness is the average across the entire file. This is the number you master to. When someone says "-16 LUFS," they almost always mean integrated.

So your workflow is: edit normally, then at the end check the integrated reading on the whole episode and adjust the overall level until it lands near your target. Do not try to make every second hit -16. Quiet pauses and loud laughs are normal. It is the long-run average that counts.

How to hit your loudness target step by step

You do not need expensive plugins. Free tools handle this well. Here is a clean process that works in most editors.

1. Record at healthy levels. Aim for peaks around -12 to -6 dB while recording so you capture detail without clipping. Never let the recording hit 0 dB.
2. Edit and clean first. Cut mistakes, remove background noise, and balance each speaker so nobody is much louder than the others. Loudness mastering comes last, not first.
3. Apply gentle compression to even out the dynamics. A ratio around 2:1 or 3:1 with a few dB of gain reduction keeps the voice steady without sounding squashed.
4. Run a loudness meter or normaliser set to -16 LUFS integrated. Tools like Auphonic (free tier available), the loudness normalise feature in Audacity, or built-in loudness meters in editors will do the maths for you.
5. Set a true peak limiter at -1 dBTP as the final stage so nothing clips after normalisation.
6. Listen back on earbuds and a phone speaker. If it sounds comfortable on cheap earbuds at half volume, you are there.

If you record with us at Timelapse Studio, our editing add-on handles all of this for you, so your episodes leave already mastered to broadcast loudness. For a deeper walkthrough of the editing side, see our guide on how to mix a podcast episode.

Common loudness mistakes that make podcasts sound bad

The biggest mistake is over-compressing to chase loudness. People crank a limiter until the voice is loud and flat, which makes it tiring to listen to and kills the natural feel of conversation. Loud is not the same as good.

Another common error is mastering each speaker separately to -16 but never checking the full mixed file. The combined episode can end up louder than the parts. Always measure integrated loudness on the final export.

Mismatched volume between segments trips up a lot of new shows too. Your intro music blasts in at one level, the talk is quieter, and the ad read is loud again. Listeners hate jumping for the volume control. Master the whole episode as one piece, then check that intro music sits no more than a couple of dB above the speech. If echo and room noise are part of your problem, fixing that at the source helps more than any plugin, and our notes on how to reduce echo and background noise cover the practical fixes.

Does loudness matter for video podcasts too

Yes, and it matters more than people expect because video adds YouTube into the mix. YouTube normalises audio to roughly -14 LUFS, so a video podcast mastered to -16 LUFS will play at a sensible level there and on podcast apps at the same time. You do not need separate masters for audio and video versions if you stick to a -16 LUFS spoken-word target.

The one thing to watch with video is music and sound effects in your intro. On video these tend to be louder and can spike your peaks. Keep that -1 dBTP ceiling and your video podcast will sound just as clean as the audio feed. If you are recording professional video, our breakdown of how to get studio quality podcast audio explains how good sound at the source makes mastering far easier.

Frequently asked questions

What LUFS should a podcast be? For a stereo spoken-word podcast, master to -16 LUFS integrated with true peaks under -1 dBTP. Use around -19 LUFS if your file is mono. This is the standard that plays well on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube without getting distorted.

Do I need expensive software to set loudness? No. Audacity has a free loudness normalise feature, and Auphonic offers a free tier that masters to a LUFS target automatically. The standard is about the target number, not the price of your tools.

Will Spotify and Apple change my volume anyway? They normalise loud content down to their own targets, so mastering to -16 LUFS keeps you safe everywhere. If you go much louder than the platform target, they turn you down and any clipping you baked in stays clipped, so there is no benefit to over-pushing.

What is the difference between LUFS and dB? dB on a peak meter measures the loudest single instant of audio, while LUFS measures average perceived loudness over time. Two files with the same peak can sound very different in volume, which is why LUFS is the better target for podcasts.

Can the studio handle loudness for me? Yes. At Timelapse Studio our editing add-on masters every episode to broadcast loudness so you do not have to touch a meter. See our packages for pricing on recording plus editing.

Want your episodes mastered to broadcast loudness without the guesswork? Book a session with Timelapse Studio and we will take care of the sound.