LUFS
LUFS is the loudness standard that keeps your podcast at an even, comfortable volume across every app, so listeners never reach for the dial.
LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is the standard measure of perceived loudness used to set how loud a podcast sounds across an episode. Mastering to a consistent LUFS target keeps your show at a comfortable, even volume on every platform.
For example, an engineer masters each episode to around -16 LUFS so the show plays at the same loudness as other podcasts and listeners never reach for the volume control.
Why it matters: consistent loudness makes a show sound professional and saves listeners from constant volume tweaks, which protects the credibility of your brand's audio.
Target around -16 LUFS integrated for stereo podcast audio and roughly -14 LUFS for the same content on YouTube, with true peaks kept below -1 dBTP.
integrated loudness measured over the whole episode, in LUFS
Lower (more negative) means quieter; aim for a single consistent target per platform.
- Mastering by eye to a waveform instead of metering loudness.
- Delivering inconsistent loudness across episodes, so listeners ride the volume.
- Over-compressing to hit a number and crushing the natural dynamics.
What is LUFS?
LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is the standard measure of perceived loudness used to set how loud a podcast sounds across an episode. Mastering to a consistent LUFS target keeps your show at a comfortable, even volume on every platform.
What LUFS should a podcast be?
Spoken-word podcasts are commonly mastered to around -16 LUFS for stereo, with many platforms normalising toward -14 to -16 LUFS. The exact target depends on the platform and format.
Is LUFS the same as volume?
It measures perceived loudness over time, which tracks how loud something actually sounds to a listener, rather than the instantaneous peak level a meter shows.