Honestly, I struggled with this.

Because so many people could use it as as a reason to do the exact opposite of what I recommend.

What am I talking about ?

It’s the new feature in my Loudness Penalty plugin upgrade that’s getting the most attention - the emulation of Spotify’s limiter.

Wait, WHAT ?!

Haven’t I been saying for years that there aren’t any limiters in online streaming ?

Well, yes - and no. What I’ve been saying is that there aren’t any limiters or compressors except when subscribers go into Spotify’s preferences and choose the “Loud” option, intended for listening in noisy environments. 

(Personally I’m not sure it’ll really help much in that situation, but that’s what their site says, at least)

Which honestly isn’t a huge percentage of people.

The reality is that apparently fewer than 17% of Spotify users change the default normalisation setting at all, and the vast majority of those are musicians and engineers who just disable it completely.

So ‘Loud’ mode isn’t really how the vast majority of people listen to their music – potentially fewer than 1%

For those who do, though, it can have a dramatic impact on the quality of the results, which is why we decided to emulate it in Loudness Penalty. The whole idea of the plugin is to let you hear how your music will sound in comparison to everything else when people listen online, and make sure you’re happy with the result.

And that’s why I’m conflicted.

Heavy-handed, rudimentary limiting of dynamic material never sounds great !

And the only way to avoid it completely is to master everything to -11 LUFS or above. Which is exactly what I’m worried people will decide to do, when they hear Spotify's limiter emulation previewed in Loudness Penalty 2.

Because it's rarely the right choice musically, in my opinion. I’m always talking about the loudness “sweet spot” – and while -11 LUFS can work pretty well for music that’s intended to sound loud, for more varied material it’s just too much, in my opinion. Not disastrous, just often more than necessary.

And I’ve never suggested compromising the best possible sound for your music in order to hit particular numbers like this.

So, why did we implement the new emulation feature, if I’m so concerned about it ?

Because the whole idea of Loudness Penalty is to allow you to make an informed decision. And just hope it’s a great fit for the music. I don't really hate the feature, I just wish it wasn't necessary !

My own informed decision ? Keep calm and carry on. 

I’d prefer it if the limiter in Spotify wasn’t there at all, but the percentage of people using the 'Loud' mode is small, and the chances are if they've enabled it they're not concerned about the quality differences. 

Added to which, having tested with some of my favourite masters, the impact isn’t actually that bad. The whole point of being in the “sweet spot” I recommend is that our masters are already “loud enough” and they sound great. An extra couple of dB of limiting at the loudest moments is a shame, but hardly the end of the world.

So it’ll be business as usual, for me - despite everything this new feature reveals about the way Spotify’s limiter sounds. 

My advice hasn't changed – low-quality playback scenarios do exist, but the best response is still to make the music sound as good as it possibly can for everyone else.

How about you?

(To find out about all the new features of Loudness Penalty 2, click here)