Waveform
House typical envelope
EQ Profile
Kick Layer (50–70 Hz & 2–4 kHz) & Bassline Groove (80–120 Hz)
LUFS Target
Spotify integrated
Spectrum
Pink-noise reference
House Mastering for Spotify
Four-on-the-floor kick, soulful energy, disco heritage bass · Tuned for Spotify playback
Target: -14 LUFS · True Peak: -1 dBTP · Dynamic Range: 6-10 LU
House Mastering Specification. Spotify
| Parameter | House Specification |
|---|---|
| Loudness Target | -14 LUFS integrated (Spotify optimized) |
| True Peak Ceiling | -1 dBTP. Inter-sample peak limit |
| Dynamic Range | 6-10 LU LU. Genre-appropriate |
| EQ Focus | Kick Layer (50–70 Hz & 2–4 kHz) & Bassline Groove (80–120 Hz) |
| Stereo Image | Mono sub below 80 Hz (club-critical), wide stereo above 200 Hz |
| Platform Algorithm | Spotify normalizes to -14 LUFS. |
Why House on Spotify Needs Specialized Mastering
House mastering must satisfy two completely different playback environments simultaneously: club systems with 2,000W subwoofers capable of reproducing 20 Hz, and earbuds incapable of reproducing below 80 Hz. The four-on-the-floor kick must hit identically in both contexts. This requires layering a sub-kick component at 50–70 Hz with a click component at 2–4 kHz, and applying gentle multiband saturation to the sub-kick to generate 2nd-harmonic content at 100–140 Hz that earbuds can reproduce. The bassline in house. Typically a Juno or Minimoog-style synth at 80–120 Hz. Must be mono-compatible below 80 Hz. Any stereo information in the sub-bass will cancel to silence on club systems running separate mono subs. M/S processing on the mastering EQ to high-pass the side channel at 80–100 Hz ensures club mono-compatibility while preserving stereo width in the mid-high range. Sidechain compression between kick and bassline should preserve 6–10 dB of pumping depth. House music's groove depends on this rhythmic breath. A brick-wall true peak limiter at -1 dBTP with 5 ms attack preserves the kick transient while preventing inter-sample peaks from the highly compressed mix.
Spotify context: Spotify normalizes to -14 LUFS. Louder masters are turned down. Not up. Do not over-limit to -8 LUFS; you lose dynamics with no loudness gain.
House × Spotify. The Normalization Math
How -14 LUFS interacts with House's natural loudness window
House's natural -10 to -8 LUFS loudness sits roughly 5.0 dB hotter than Spotify's -14 LUFS target, so the platform turns the master down at playback. The competitive instinct to push to -7 or -8 LUFS for "loudness wars" parity is wasted on Spotify. the platform takes the gain back, and the only result is the dynamic compression you paid for with no perceived loudness benefit. Target -14 LUFS integrated directly and bank the saved dynamic range as groove-forward with breathing room. The -1 dBTP ceiling specified for Spotify prevents inter-sample peaks from clipping during the codec's reconstruction filter, which is especially relevant for House's 60-120 Hz kick body content where high-amplitude transients accumulate against the limiter.
Codec Reality for House on Spotify
Spotify's Ogg Vorbis at 320 kbps premium / 160 kbps free is high-quality lossy compression. Most listeners cannot ABX it against the WAV master. The artifact tendency clusters at 8-12 kHz cymbal shimmer, which intersects with House's secondary character bands, so de-essing decisions and high-frequency limiting on House masters matter more on Spotify than on a fully lossless tier. Pre-emptive 1-2 dB attenuation at 8-12 kHz during mastering survives the encoder cleanly. The dynamic-range character of House (groove-forward with breathing room, 6-9 LU) interacts with this codec tier specifically: compress conservatively, then let the codec do the rest. Over-compression at the mastering stage stacks with the codec's loudness handling and produces a flat, fatigued listening result.
House EQ Profile for Spotify
Four-on-the-floor kick: The house kick is sacred. Boost 80–100 Hz for the disco-heritage thump and 2–4 kHz for the click/attack. High-pass at 30 Hz.
Warm bassline: Deep, sustained house bassline at 60–100 Hz. Keep warm and controlled. House bass is melodic and supportive, not dominant like techno.
Piano and organ clarity: Classic house uses piano, organ, and gospel-influenced chords. Boost 2–5 kHz for melodic clarity above the kick and bass.
Sidechain groove: The kick-sidechain ducking pump defines house music's drive. It must survive mastering with 3–4 dB audible ducking on the bassline.
Compression & Limiting for Spotify
Dance floor energy: House tolerates -11 to -13 LUFS on SoundCloud/Audiomack. For Spotify/Apple Music/Tidal, -14 LUFS with preserved sidechain dynamics.
Sidechain preservation: The kick-sidechain pump is house music's heartbeat. Verify 3–4 dB of audible ducking on the bassline survives the master limiter.
Groove glue: Gentle 2:1 glue compression with a slow release that lets the bassline breathe between kicks. The release time should follow the groove.
House LUFS Targets. All Platforms Compared
How House mastering specs differ across every major streaming platform.
| Platform | Integrated LUFS | True Peak | Current page |
|---|---|---|---|
🟢Spotify | -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP | You are here |
| -16 LUFS | -1 dBTP | View guide → | |
▶️YouTube | -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP | View guide → |
| -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP | View guide → | |
| -11 LUFS | -0.5 dBTP | View guide → | |
| -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP | View guide → | |
| -13 LUFS | -0.5 dBTP | View guide → | |
🎛️Beatport | -9 LUFS | -0.3 dBTP | View guide → |
| -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP | View guide → | |
| -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP | View guide → | |
| -14 LUFS | -1 dBTP | View guide → | |
| -15 LUFS | -1 dBTP | View guide → |
Technical Methodology. House Mastering for Spotify
Target: -14 LUFS integrated · -1 dBTP true peak · EBU R128 / ITU-R BS.1770-4 compliant
We measure integrated LUFS using K-weighted filtering per ITU-R BS.1770-4: a high-shelf pre-filter at 1681.97 Hz (+3.9998 dB gain) followed by a 75 Hz high-pass (Q=0.5) to remove DC offset and low-frequency rumble. The mean square of the filtered signal gives us integrated loudness in LUFS.
True peak (dBTP) is measured at 4× oversampling to detect inter-sample peaks that occur between digital samples. Sample-peak measurement alone misses these peaks, which cause audible clipping during AAC and MP3 lossy encoding on streaming platforms. We enforce the true peak ceiling at -1 dBTP for all standard platforms.
Genre EQ profiles apply frequency-specific gain based on each genre's sonic characteristics: mud reduction at 250–400 Hz for hip-hop and trap, presence enhancement at 2–4 kHz for vocal clarity on phone speakers, sub-bass high-pass at 30–35 Hz for all genres to remove inaudible subsonic content that wastes headroom.
Master bus compression uses a VCA-style algorithm with genre-tuned attack and release times. Lo-fi and jazz use 50 ms attack to preserve transients; EDM and techno use 5–10 ms for density. Parallel compression blends the compressed signal at 20–40% wet to lift room sound without eliminating the uncompressed transient attack.
The final limiter stage uses lookahead limiting (3–5 ms) to catch transient peaks before they exceed the true peak ceiling. The limiter targets platform-specific LUFS: -14 LUFS for Spotify, -16 LUFS for Apple Music, -11 LUFS for SoundCloud, -9 LUFS for Beatport. Gain reduction is transparent at 1–2 dB of limiting; beyond 3 dB audible artifacts require reducing the input drive.
All processing runs in your browser via Web Audio API. No audio data is uploaded to any server.
House Mastering FAQ. Spotify
What LUFS for house music on Spotify?
Target -14 LUFS integrated. House benefits from a 6–10 LU dynamic range. Wide enough for the sidechain pump to be expressive and the kick to hit with impact.
How do I preserve the house sidechain pump through mastering?
The sidechain pump (kick-to-bass ducking) must be checked explicitly after mastering. Use a limiter with a program-dependent release that tracks the groove's tempo. If the pump is reduced, increase the sidechain amount in your mix before mastering. The pump should have 3–4 dB of audible movement.
Does the house kick translate on Spotify's playback?
The house kick at 80–100 Hz (body) and 2–4 kHz (click) translates well on Spotify. Ensure the kick remains the loudest transient in the master.
House Mastering for Other Platforms
Other Genres on Spotify
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