Two of my most popular videos in the last few years have been about Billie Eilish.

And that’s no accident, for two reasons. First, I think she’s an amazing artist, and I love her music. But second, I think her work is really clever and interesting, on many different levels. 

And one of those levels is the loudness !

Having said that, some of the details in the first of my videos aren't accurate any more, so this email provides an update. The first video is above in case you haven't see it yet.
 

So what's changed ?

Most importantly, since I made this video, both YouTube and Spotify have switched to using exactly -14 LUFS as their Distribution Loudness levels. So, no more ReplayGain as mentioned in the video. And no more loudness discrepancies - Spotify & YouTube now apply exactly the same loudness adjustment to “Xanny” as the result shown for TIDAL in the video.

Put another way, if you test the song on the Loudness Penalty site today, all three sites will show a reduction in loudness of -4.5 dB. Which means that these days "Xanny" doesn’t stand out from the crowd nearly as well as it did back when it was released. And “Bad Guy” is turned down by a whopping 6 dB or more on all platforms, too.

Now of course almost all loud material is turned down by default these days, so this isn’t the end of the world, especially since as I say in the video, we know that at least some of this extreme loudness and crush was deliberate creative intent.

Anything else ?

The other thing that’s changed since then is that a Dolby Atmos version of Billie's album has been made available, and like all Atmos mixes & masters, the loudness isn’t pushed nearly as hard as CD releases typically are. Meaning we can now hear how these albums might have sounded if they had been released with more dynamics.

And the answer is that they still sound great - in fact personally I prefer the more dynamic versions. The bass is bigger and hits harder; there’s more depth and clarity in the sound; the choruses of “Xanny” still sounds claustrophobic and miserable as intended, just a little less distorted. And the same applies to the latest album “Happier Than Ever” and Billie’s Bond theme “No Time To Die”. To hear this last example for yourself, check out my second video:

(And to see me talking about all these issues with Nick Rives from Capital, who mixed the album, click here)

So, where does all this leave us ?!

With the benefit of hindsight, I stand by my final conclusion from the first video - in fact I'm even more confident about it. I wish the album had been mastered several dB lower in level, even in stereo, to give it more room to breathe, with even more punch, space and depth. 

This would sound better (in my opinion), reduce the amount of inter-sample decoder clipping on streaming services, and still be played back just as loud as everything else online - in fact it would probably sound a little louder, in some cases.

So, does that mean it was originally mastered too loud, after all ? Ultimately that’s a judgement call. In my opinion it was unnecessarily loud, but you may disagree.

So...what ?

The real question though is - how do you decide this stuff for your music ? What’s the ideal balance of loudness and dynamics for you, especially online where the loudest songs are reduced in level something like 80-90% of the time ?

That’s exactly the question I’ve tried to answer in my new course, Mastering for Streaming Made Simple. It breaks down the straightforward 5-step process anyone can use to understand the results of their mastering decisions, and decide whether the loudness is right based on musical factors, not technical details. 

It shows you that it’s possible to pay attention to the numbers without being ruled by them, and how to know exactly how the music you master will sound online before you upload it, so you can be completely confident you’re happy with the results.

It shows you how to master online loudness, using musical methods that will always work. Stop worrying about the numbers and focus on the music, and get predictable, repeatable results with complete confidence.

Sound good ? Yes, it will 😛

To find out more, click here.