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Loudness Penalty 2 – Spotify Limiter emulation and more

June 15th, 2026 BY 

I'm excited to announce the release of Version 2 of my Loudness Penalty plugin.

It was never meant to be a plugin – we originally made the website to help answer the most frequent question people kept asking: "how loud will my music be played by online streaming services?", and you can still use it today, for free.

But we kept getting requests to release a plugin, so in the end we did – and it turned out the be the most popular thing we've ever made !

The site and plugin have always been about clarity and simplicity, and Version 2 is no exception – we've worked hard to add as much extra feedback as possible while keeping everything clean and intuitive.

You can see a walkthrough of all the new features in the video above, but here's a quick summary:

  • Block View - See an intuitive display of max true peak, integrated loudness, LRA - and of course the Loudness Penalty - all at a glance
  • Resizable UI - Now fully resizable and responsive, with a compact “Mini” list view that will fit any resolution
  • More detail - See and hear the results for Spotify Quiet, Loud and YouTube Music
  • Lock button - Measure your song, freeze the scores and then Preview using the official numbers
  • Spotify Limiter Preview - See and hear the effect of Spotify's 'loud' mode limiter

And yes, you read that last one right - Spotify does use a limiter, but only when subscribers choose the “Loud” setting in the preferences, for listening in noisy environments. And only if the loudness is below -11 LUFS.

It’s a small percentage of listeners, but the effect can be dramatic, and the Loudness Penalty plugin is the only way to Preview it accurately - in realtime, and in your DAW.

Existing users can upgrade for 50% off during the launch, and we’re offering a 30% off introductory discount for new users. For more information, click here:



Discover Loudness Penalty Version 2

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ABOUT IAN SHEPHERD

My name is Ian Shepherd - I'm a professional mastering engineer with over 25 years experience and I run the Production Advice website with over 50,000 readers each month

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