Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services, with over 456 million monthly active users. One common complaint from Spotify users is inconsistent audio volume levels between songs and albums. This can be annoying as users have to constantly adjust their device’s volume when switching between tracks.
Fortunately, Spotify has a built-in audio normalization feature that aims to solve this problem. This article will explain what audio normalization is, how Spotify implements it, and tips to get the most balanced volume levels.
Table of Contents
What is Audio Normalization?
Audio normalization is a process that adjusts the volume of audio tracks to a consistent loudness level. The goal is for all tracks to have a similar perceived volume so users don’t have to fiddle with volume controls when switching between songs.
There are two main types of audio normalization:
- Peak normalization – Adjusts volume based on the peak/highest amplitude of the audio signal.
- Loudness normalization – Adjusts volume based on the overall perceived loudness of the track. More accurate than peak normalization.
Loudness normalization is generally preferred as it takes into account differences in dynamic range between tracks.
How Spotify Normalizes Audio
Spotify uses a loudness normalization technique to balance audio levels across its massive music catalog:
- Spotify targets audio to be normalized to -14 LUFS loudness units relative to full scale.
- Entire albums are normalized together rather than individual tracks. This prevents volume differences between songs in the same album.
- Some limiting is applied to prevent clipping or distortion, while aiming to preserve audio quality and dynamic range as much as possible.
- Premium subscribers can choose between Loud, Normal, and Quiet normalization levels under playback settings.
Overall this system aims to strike a balance between consistent loudness, audio quality preservation, and user control.
Tips for Getting Optimal Volume Levels
Here are some tips to help you achieve balanced, high-quality audio volume on Spotify:
Turn Off Audio Normalization
- Disabling normalization entirely will remove all audio adjustments and play tracks as the artists intended.
- This exposes you to more volume differences between tracks but delivers maximum audio quality.
Choose Normal or Quiet Normalization
- If inconsistent volumes bother you, use Normal or Quiet normalization levels to smooth things out while aiming to retain audio quality.
- Avoid the Loud setting as aggressive limiting can degrade quality, especially for dynamically rich genres like classical and jazz.
Use Volume Leveling Instead for Coarse Adjustments
- Spotify also offers Loud, Normal and Quiet settings under Volume Leveling.
- This uniformly raises or lowers volume but without the audio analysis and processing of normalization.
- Use Volume Leveling for coarse volume adjustments between Normalization settings.
Set Streaming Quality to Very High
- Higher streaming bitrates preserve more detail and dynamic range for properly normalized tracks.
- Combine normalization with at least the High streaming quality option under playback settings.
Use External Equalization and Effects Sparingly
- Spotify’s equalizer and audio effects can further process your audio, potentially degrading quality.
- First optimize volume normalization settings before applying additional effects.
Conclusion
Audio normalization has advantages but also some downsides when it comes to audio quality preservation. Finding the right balance depends on your listening preferences between consistency, quality, and loudness.
Follow the tips in this article to get the most out of Spotify’s volume settings. Disabling normalization and using high-quality streaming can expose you to more volume differences, but delivers audio untouched by processing.
