Lemme just say that while it’s easy to blame mastering engineers, for the most part, we hate hate hate it when a client says those terrifying words: “competitive loudness.” We like our ears — they’re our business, after all — and pushing a track to absurd levels is not the best way to preserve your hearing.
It’s producers (and sometimes artists) who ask for the slammed tracks, and almost always for radio play. I mean, there is no other sensible reason why an Ellie Goulding ballad should clock in at -7LUFS. I can understand why an art-noise band might have ludicrous loudness but most other bands it’s just a bad idea. But try telling that to the guy holding the purse strings.
Thankfully, the loudness wars are ending. All the major outlets — youtube, spotify, apple, tidal, amazon — have loudness adjustment that dials everything back to at least -13LUFS (in some cases, -16). European broadcast standards are pushing back. The lone holdouts are american radio (and pretty much nobody but a handful of artists get pop radio play) and Soundcloud (but if you’re mastering specifically for soundcloud, you might want to rethink that). So the tide is turning, and in the end it’s a good thing for everyone.
