What is the difference between LUFS and dBFS?

dBFS is the level of the samples themselves, measured against digital full scale, so a file that never clips can still sit very close to zero. LUFS is an integrated, K-weighted measurement of how loud the programme sounds to a listener over time. That is why a track can be perfectly clean in dBFS terms and still be far too loud by every platform's target.

Why are true-peak ceilings set at minus one or two dBTP instead of zero?

Because the peak a converter reconstructs can be higher than the largest sample in the file. A band-limited reconstruction of near-Nyquist content can overshoot the sample peak by around 3 dB, and a lossy encoder can add overshoot of its own. Leaving a decibel or two below full scale keeps that overshoot from clipping after the file leaves your hands.

What is the absolute gate for in a loudness measurement?

It keeps very quiet material out of the average. BS.1770 applies an absolute gate at −70 LUFS and a relative gate 10 LU below the ungated average, so silence, fades and quiet passages cannot pull an integrated reading down and make a file look quieter than it sounds.

Is LKFS the same as LUFS?

For practical purposes, yes. LKFS is the broadcast spelling of the same unit and the two agree once the reference anchoring is aligned, which is why ATSC A/85 quotes −24 LKFS while European broadcast quotes −23 LUFS. The difference between those two figures is a standards choice, not a unit conversion.

Should I master louder than my platform's target?

No. Every mainstream platform turns a louder master down, so the extra level is not heard, while the compression and limiting used to get there stay in the file. You keep the same apparent loudness and lose the dynamics. Aim at the target, respect the ceiling and spend the effort on the mix instead.

Loudness Standards Reference

You Might Also Need

Loudness Meter (LUFS)

Measure integrated loudness in LUFS

Loudness Normalizer

Normalize to LUFS loudness standards

True Peak Meter

Measure true peak levels

Loudness Range (LRA) Meter

Measure loudness range

Loudness Standards Reference collects the delivery targets that actually govern finished audio, from streaming services to European and American broadcast law. It also explains the two units behind every number in the table: LUFS for loudness and dBTP for true peak.

What is Loudness Standards Reference?

Seven standards are listed with their loudness target, their maximum true peak and a note on what the figure means in practice. The rows cover Spotify and YouTube at −14 LUFS, Apple Music at −16 LUFS, Amazon Music at −14 to −16 LUFS with a stricter −2 dBTP ceiling, general podcast delivery at about −16 LUFS, EBU R128 at −23 LUFS for European broadcast and ATSC A/85 at −24 LKFS for the United States.

What the columns mean:

LUFS, or loudness units full scale, an integrated measurement of perceived loudness over time rather than an instantaneous level.
dBTP, true peak, the highest peak a converter will reconstruct between the samples, which is why ceilings sit at −1 or −2 dBTP even when no sample reaches zero.
LRA, loudness range, quoted as 4 to 18 LU for EBU R128 and describing how much loudness moves across a programme.
LKFS, the broadcast spelling of the same loudness unit, equivalent to LUFS for practical purposes.
A target, the figure to aim at, and a ceiling, the figure never to cross.

The measurements these targets assume come from ITU-R BS.1770, the standard behind the K-weighted loudness meter used across this domain. BS.1770 filters the signal with a two stage K-weighting chain, a high shelf followed by a high pass, then averages power over 400 millisecond momentary blocks and 3 second short term blocks before deriving the integrated value with two gates: an absolute gate at −70 LUFS and a relative gate 10 LU below the ungated average, so near-silence and quiet passages cannot drag a reading down. True peak is a different calculation entirely, estimated by oversampling the signal several times over with a band-limited interpolation kernel, because a waveform that never exceeds full scale at its sample points can still overshoot by roughly 3 dB once a converter reconstructs it. This domain's own meter implements both and can report the delta between a measured file and any target in the table.

Where the reference has limits:

These are published targets, and platforms revise them, so the table is a snapshot rather than a live feed.
A target says where a platform lands a loud master, not how it will measure yours, and two services can read the same file differently.
Integrated LUFS says nothing about musical dynamics; a heavily limited master and a dynamic one can share a number.
The gated integrated value deliberately ignores very quiet material, so it describes the loud parts of a programme rather than the whole file.
Nothing is decoded or analysed on this page; the reference pairs with a meter rather than replacing one.
Broadcast targets are legal obligations in their regions, while streaming targets are conventions a service can change without notice.

The practical rule is to aim at the target, keep the true peak under the ceiling and stop there. Pushing a master louder than −14 LUFS wins nothing when both Spotify and YouTube simply turn it back down, and it costs dynamics that cannot be recovered afterwards. Master to the platform you are actually publishing to, leave about a decibel of mastering headroom below the ceiling so a lossy encoder has somewhere to put its overshoot, and let the meter confirm the number rather than your ears.

How to use Loudness Standards Reference

Identify the platform or standard your file is destined for and read its target and ceiling from the table.
Measure the file with a loudness meter so you know the integrated value and the true peak you are starting from.
Apply the difference with a normalizer or gain stage, aiming at the target rather than above it.
Re-measure to confirm the integrated value and keep the true peak below the ceiling before delivering.

When to use Loudness Standards Reference vs related tools

Loudness Standards Reference is the target-setting step, so use it to decide what a master should read before you touch a gain stage. Loudness Meter (LUFS) measures a file against the same gated integrated method these targets assume, and Loudness Normalizer applies the difference in one pass. Where the concern is not the average level but what happens between the samples, True Peak Meter reports the oversampled peak that decides whether a ceiling is really respected, and Loudness Range (LRA) Meter checks the loudness range that broadcasts such as EBU R128 call out explicitly.

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