[MLA] Interesting info about Spotify normalization

[Grimm | Eelco]

Hi Bob,

> Spotify Giving more than one option is bound to be confusing for the user and ultimately a mess for mastering engineers trying to communicate ONE MESSAGE to our clients.
> 

Yes, I agree. The good news fortunately is that the default is “loudness normalization at -14 LUFS ON”. So if we believe it is a problem that Apple did not turn normalization on by default since users never change the settings, we can use the same argument now to stay cool about this move by Spotify.

> Secondly, regardless of the Cenelec issue and the low headphones issue on cheap devices we have to hold our ground. Advocating -11 LUFS at any point is a real problem sonically and a real compromise sonically. There has to be another solution and we must NEVER EVER advocate -11 LUFS. It's a stupid idea and cannot be rationalized away. 

MLA will certainly never advocate -11 LUFS.

> Even Thomas accepts -14 LUFS with album normalization, so let's not cross that line in the sand. And to repeat: -14 without album normalization is unacceptable also. So we need to know whether Spotify has album norm.

Yes they have. They switch from track normalization to album normalization and back, based upon what’s next on the playlist. In my opinion not as good as album normalization always, but for instance Thomas preferred this normalization style.

Let’s hope we can nudge Apple to implement the “extra headroom with normalization on” option soon. Then we just switch to a -23 LUFS target and have a beer :-)

Cheers,
Eelco

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