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smilsky

Master Volume for Distribution Services

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Hi everyone! 

I have probably a newbie question, but I can't find a definite answer anywhere. 

I am close to finishing my first album and coming to the point, where need only mastering on most of my tracks. I will probably find a mastering enginner to do the work, but for myself, I'd still like to know about the loudness levels for the distribution services. Everywhere it says that you should master at around -14 LUFS, and different streaming services normalize the loudness. Once, however, I released a track (not psybient/psytrance genre) with loudness at -14 LUFS, and when it was released, I was very disappointed to hear that it was significanltly quieter than other tracks on my playlist - on Youtube, Apple Music etc. On Apple Music I know there is a Sound Check option that normalizes the volume - usually I have it turned off. When I tried turning it on, it did not affect my song, though, while others seemed to play a little bit quiter, still louder than mine. 

At the same time when I listen to MP3s from Youtube as well as lossless albums in psybient/psytrance they play at around -8-9 LUFS, and that's the loudness I strive for when I do mastering for myself.

So, I am really concerned that my music will be at an odd loudness level when I release it, since I am going to upload it through a distribution service on my own, not sure which one yet. I used CD Baby before, but I am not really satisfied with that one. 

What happens if I upload it at -8 LUFS - will the sound get overly compressed and distorted? Or uploading at -14 LUFS should be OK, as long as I use another distribution service besides CD Baby? Or should I not worry about all this and just let the mastering engineer do all the work?

Thanks in advance for your answers! I've been working on my album for over a year, and really don't want to screw everything up at the final stage. 

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