[MLA] Spotify’s plans

[Ian Shepherd]

Hi All,

I heard from somewhere rumours that in future Spotify will be normalising before encoding. 

(I can’t remember where this info came from, or whether it was on the record, which is why I’m mentioning it here first rather than in one of the AES groups)

Ultimately I think this is a good idea, since it will reduce the chances of decoder clipping, and also give better encoding results in general.

However it’s also concerning if they choose (for example) -14 LUFS as a reference level. There will be a huge investment of time and processing in re-encoding their entire library, and I  imagine this would make them highly resistant to future changes - for example, to a reference level of -18 LUFS, as the AES are discussing.

Did this info come from anyone in this group ? If so, do we need to start a conversation about it, or are Spotify already waiting to see what the AES recommend ?

If we don’t know, do you think it’s OK for me to post the same question in the AES groups ?!

Ian