[MLA] Interesting info about Spotify normalization

[Kevin Gross]

Although most of us have convinced ourselves that -14 or -16 LUFS is a good
target for all releases, user experience doesn't necessarily support this.
These target levels hit some limits in terms of player capability
(especially when the option to use alternative headphones/earbuds is taken
into account), HLP issues and, most practically, without something like
NORM-L, disabling -14 or -16 LUFS loudness normalization makes most tracks
louder. Listeners generally assume louder=better so we could end up losing
our own loudness war here. The -11 option is perhaps Spotifiy's solution to
this. If users are unsatisfied with -14, adding a well-processed -11 option
is probably much better than disabling normalization.

Kevin Gross - AVA Networks

On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 8:35 AM, Grimm | Eelco <eelco at grimmaudio.com> wrote:

> > Another interesting Spotify thing though - two people have emailed me to
> say that their latest iOS versions have three different normalisation
> choices:
> >
> > Loud (-11)
> > Normal (-14)
> > Quiet (??)
>
> Oh no! That would mean mastering engineers will target -11 again. I will
> contact my Spotify guy asap.
>
> All the best,
> Eelco
>
>
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