Podcast & Streaming Audio Loudness (LUFS) & True Peak Analyzer

Podcast Loudness: Hit -16 LUFS So Every Player Sounds Right

Ever noticed how one podcast blasts while the next whispers, forcing you to ride the volume button? That inconsistency is a loudness problem, and the industry solved it with LUFS — Loudness Units relative to Full Scale — a measurement that matches how human ears actually perceive volume, unlike the old peak meters that only catch the loudest instant. The podcast standard is -16 LUFS for stereo (-19 for mono), with true peaks capped at -1 dBTP. Hit those numbers and your show plays at consistent volume on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere else, because every major platform normalizes to roughly this target.

Hitting -16 is not about slamming a limiter until the meter reads right — that is how you get fatiguing, crushed audio. The professional chain is gentler: record with healthy levels (peaks around -12 to -6 dB), even out dynamics with light compression on voices, then use loudness normalization as the final step to land exactly on target. True peak limiting at -1 dBTP matters because lossy encoders like MP3 and AAC can create inter-sample peaks above 0 dB that clip on playback; the -1 ceiling gives the codec headroom to do its damage without audible distortion.

The RSS side is the part producers forget until something breaks at the worst moment. Your MP3 needs proper ID3 tags (title, artist, embedded album art), a stable enclosure URL that never changes, and a feed validating against podcast namespace requirements — one malformed date or a redirecting enclosure URL and directories quietly drop episodes without telling you. The analyzer measures integrated loudness, loudness range, and true peak across your full file, flags segments that deviate from the target, and checks the RSS feed structure, so what you publish sounds consistent and actually appears where listeners look.