How Loud Should Your Podcast Be? A Complete Guide

You’ve mixed your episode, it sounds great in your headphones, and you’re ready to publish. But then you listen on Spotify and everything sounds squashed. Or you pull it up on Apple Podcasts and it’s noticeably quieter than every other show in your queue. What happened?

The answer is usually loudness normalization—and understanding it takes about five minutes. Let’s walk through it.

What is LUFS, actually?

LUFS stands for “Loudness Units relative to Full Scale.” It’s a measurement of how loud audio sounds to a person, not just how high the waveform peaks on a meter.

Old-school peak meters only show the loudest moment of a signal. LUFS looks at the whole picture—frequency weighting, sustained loudness over time, the stuff your ears actually respond to. Two files can have the same peak level but completely different LUFS readings because one is compressed to be consistently loud while the other has a huge dynamic range.

Every major podcast platform uses LUFS to decide whether to adjust your audio after you upload it. That’s why it matters.

Why loudness normalization exists

Imagine scrolling through a podcast app. You finish a calm interview show and start a high-energy comedy podcast. Without normalization, you’d be constantly reaching for the volume knob. Nobody wants that.

Platforms fix this by measuring your episode’s integrated loudness and adjusting it to a target. If your show is louder than the target, they turn it down. If it’s quieter, they turn it up. The adjustment is automatic and it doesn’t care about your artistic intent.

The problem? When a platform turns up a quiet episode, it also turns up the noise floor—breaths, room hum, mouse clicks. And when it turns down a loud episode, it can squash the dynamics you carefully mixed.

The fix is simple: master your episode to the platform’s target before you publish.

The numbers you need

Here are the targets for the four most common distribution channels:

Platform	Target LUFS	True Peak Max
Apple Podcasts	−16 LUFS	−1.0 dBTP
Spotify	−14 LUFS	−1.0 dBTP
YouTube	−14 LUFS	−1.0 dBTP
Broadcast (ATSC A/85)	−24 LUFS	−2.0 dBTP

Integrated LUFS is the average perceived loudness of the entire file. It’s the main number you’re aiming for.

True Peak (dBTP) is the highest sample value after oversampling. Even if your regular peak meter says you’re under 0 dB, inter-sample peaks can clip during conversion. A true peak limiter prevents that.

Loudness Range (LRA) measures how dynamic your audio is—the difference between the quiet and loud parts. For most spoken podcasts, an LRA between 5 and 10 LU is normal. A very low LRA means everything is the same volume (might feel flat), and a very high LRA means there are big jumps (distracting for listeners).

Which target should I aim for?

If you distribute primarily through Apple Podcasts, aim for −16 LUFS. This is the most conservative and widely recommended target for podcasts.

If your show lives mainly on YouTube or Spotify, −14 LUFS gives you a bit more presence.

If you publish everywhere (most people do), −16 LUFS is a safe bet. Spotify and YouTube will leave it alone or give it a very slight bump, and Apple Podcasts will play it as-is.

For broadcast, −24 LUFS is a whole different world—mostly relevant if your podcast gets syndicated to radio or TV.

How to check your levels

The quickest way is to use our free Podcast Loudness Checker. Drop your exported file in, and it measures integrated LUFS, true peak, and LRA right in the browser. No uploads, no signups, no servers touching your file.

If you want to check inside your DAW, tools like Youlean Loudness Meter (free) or iZotope Insight work well. Just make sure you’re reading the integrated value after playing the whole file, not the momentary or short-term reading.

How to fix common loudness issues

Too quiet (integrated LUFS is lower than target)

This is the most common issue for podcasters. A few fixes:

1. Add gentle compression to even out the dynamic range. A ratio around 2:1 to 3:1 with a moderate attack works for speech.
2. Use a limiter at the end of your chain to bring the overall level up without clipping.
3. Check your gain staging. If your mic level is too low to start with, compression just amplifies noise. Fix it at the source.

Too loud (integrated LUFS is higher than target)

1. Lower the output gain on your master bus or final limiter.
2. Ease up on compression if your LRA is very low (under 4 LU). Let the audio breathe a bit.

True peak too high

1. Add a true peak limiter as the absolute last thing in your signal chain. Set the ceiling to −1.0 dBTP (or −2.0 dBTP for broadcast).
2. Most DAWs have one built in. In Premiere Pro, the Hard Limiter effect can do this, or use a dedicated mastering plugin.

A simple mastering chain for podcasts

You don’t need a complicated setup. Here’s what works for most two-person shows:

1. EQ — Cut rumble below 80 Hz, tame any harsh frequencies around 3–5 kHz.
2. Compressor — Light ratio (2:1 to 3:1), medium attack, fast release. Just smooth out the big jumps.
3. Limiter — Set ceiling to −1.0 dBTP, adjust threshold until your integrated LUFS hits the target.

That’s it. Run the export through the loudness checker to confirm, and you’re done.

The takeaway

Loudness isn’t something to stress about, but it is something to check. Five minutes of measurement saves you from sounding like the quiet show that gets skipped, or the loud show that gets squashed. Set your targets, check your levels, and let the platforms play your audio exactly as you mixed it.