How to Set DJ Edit Loudness for Club Play vs Streaming

For club play leave the Volume level on Club Ready Music's DJ Edit page at its default of −8 LUFS; for a streaming-first upload set it to −14, or −12 as a compromise. Volume level is the integrated loudness target for the finished edit, and Club Ready Music normalises to it with a two-pass EBU R128 measurement and a true-peak ceiling of −1 dBTP. Nothing else about the edit changes with this number, so you can build a loud version for the booth and a quieter version for the web from the same upload.

Steps

1. Decide where the file will actually be played

The right loudness depends on the player, not on taste. CDJs, Serato, rekordbox and any other DJ software play the file as it is, so a club edit should be as loud as the rest of your crate. Spotify, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram normalise playback to around −14 LUFS, Apple Music sits near −16, and podcast players expect about −16 stereo. SoundCloud does not normalise at all. Pick the destination first, then set one number.

2. Find the Volume level field

Volume level sits on the Detected grid step of the DJ Edit page, next to BPM and First beat (ms). It accepts −20 to −4 LUFS and defaults to −8. Set it before you press Build the DJ edit, because loudness is applied in the mastering pass on the server along with the mono bass below 120 Hz and the −1 dBTP limit.

3. Set −8 for club and USB use

Leave −8 for anything going into a DJ set. Mix-ready masters are typically −8 to −6 LUFS, so −8 lands level with commercial releases and leaves headroom for your mixer's gain. Only push toward −6 if the rest of your crate is clearly hotter and you are tired of riding the trim. Going above −6 buys nothing on a club system except more limiting on the song's transients.

4. Set −14 for streaming platforms

If the edit is headed for Spotify, YouTube, TikTok or Instagram, set Volume level to −14. A −8 LUFS file is not rejected by those services, it is simply turned down, but the limiting that made it loud stays baked in and you hear a flatter track at the same playback level. Set −12 if the same file also has to work on SoundCloud, which plays files at their native level.

5. Set −16 for podcasts and Apple Music

Podcast delivery is commonly −16 LUFS stereo or −19 mono, and Apple Music normalises to about −16. Type −16 into Volume level for an edit that opens or closes a show. Remember that Club Ready Music drops are fixed at −8 LUFS with no loudness control, so a drop placed next to a −16 edit in a podcast editor needs to come down about 8 dB.

6. Build and read the LUFS chip

Press Build the DJ edit. When the status reaches Ready, the result shows chips for BPM, length, INTRO, OUTRO and LUFS, so you can confirm the target you set is the target you got. Play the Drop in region and listen to the kick; at −8 it should feel as dense as the tracks around it in your library.

7. Rebuild for a second destination

Press Change settings & rebuild, change only Volume level and press Build the DJ edit again. The same song is reused, so there is no second upload and the intro and outro bars stay identical. Download the second MP3 320 and WAV, and rename the files on your computer so the club and streaming versions are easy to tell apart.

Tips

• Keep one loudness across a whole crate. A −8 edit next to −6 tracks sounds weak on CDJs even though it is correctly mastered; consistency matters more than the number.
• Upload the WAV, not the MP3, to Mixcloud and SoundCloud when you can. SoundCloud transcodes to 128 kbps AAC or Opus for free listeners, and a lossless source survives that better.
• The true peak ceiling is always −1 dBTP, which is why the MP3 does not clip after the encoder adds its own overshoot.
• Mono bass below 120 Hz is applied at every loudness setting, so the low end translates on a club system whether you chose −8 or −14.
• If you are unsure, build at −8. It is the easiest version to turn down later, and your DJ software can lower gain without re-rendering.

Common problems

• The edit is quieter than the other tracks in Serato. Your other files are hotter than −8 LUFS. Rebuild at −7 or −6, or lower the gain on the other tracks so the crate is consistent.
• The edit sounds squashed at −6. The song had a lot of dynamic range and the limiter is working hard to hit the target. Go back to −8 with Change settings & rebuild.
• A −8 file sounds no louder on YouTube than a −14 file. That is normalisation doing its job. Use −14 for the upload so the song keeps its transients at the same playback level.
• The podcast host says the intro music is too loud. You exported at −8 and the host expects −16. Rebuild at −16, or turn the file down 8 dB in your podcast editor.