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What loudness should you target for Apple Music?

Apple Music’s Sound Check plays songs at approximately the same loudness, and listeners can turn it on or off in the Music settings. Apple does not publish a LUFS target for it; about -16 LUFS integrated is the widely used working reference. Apple’s own mastering guidance asks you to avoid clipping and to leave at least 1 dB of headroom, because peaks can clip after encoding. Aim for a clean, punchy master with natural dynamics. True-peak ceiling -1 dBTP.

When you export from Quantara targeting Apple Music, the engine measures your master's integrated loudness (ITU-R BS.1770 / EBU R128), normalises it toward the -16.0 LUFS reference, and holds inter-sample (true) peaks under -1 dBTP. It will not slam a quiet, dynamic track up to a loud number just to hit a target — and since the major streaming platforms normalise playback anyway, sitting near the reference is what actually matters. You stay in control: tweak the chain, A/B against the original, and export when it sounds right.

Apple’s own mastering guidance

Headroom: Apple recommends leaving at least 1 dB of headroom and asks you to avoid clipping. Its afclip tool checks for clipping between samples, the same thing a true-peak meter measures.

Source files: use 24-bit sources at the highest native sample rate you have, and do not upsample a file to a higher resolution than its original.

Loudness: Sound Check lets listeners hear songs at approximately the same loudness. Apple gives no LUFS target and asks you to master for your intended sound, regardless of playback volume.

Hear the encode: Apple’s free tools encode to AAC with the same commands Apple uses at ingest, so you can listen to your master after encoding before you release it.

Sources: Apple Digital Masters (Apple, April 2021); If music in Apple Music sounds quiet, Apple Support.

Sound Check on or off

Listeners can switch Sound Check on or off: on iPhone or iPad in Settings > Apps > Music, on a Mac in Music > Settings > Playback. With it off, your master plays at the level you delivered; with it on, a loud master is simply turned down.

Either way, a master with headroom and natural dynamics holds up: it is not distorted by the encoder and not flattened by a limiter for loudness Sound Check would take away.

How to master your track for Apple Music

Genres to pair with Apple Music

Genre starting points to pair with the Apple Music target: Classical, Jazz, Acoustic, Pop, R&B. Each genre has its own frequency balance and dynamics, so treat the preset as a starting point and fine-tune by ear.

Why master Apple Music with Quantara?

A mastering engineer brings trained ears to a release. Quantara gives you a fast, transparent mastering chain tuned for Apple Music: try it with a free account (1 export with a watermark), then unlimited on the Pro plan at €8.99/month. It is a strong, measurable starting point, not a replacement for a trained engineer's ears on a critical release.

Quantara Music masters with its own engine — no AI model. The Apple Music starting point is fully adjustable in real time, and every change shows on real LUFS, true-peak and gain-reduction meters, so you can verify what it does.

Quantara Music gives you full control: adjust every control in real time, hear the difference with A/B bypass, and export when you're satisfied. Mastering runs entirely in your browser: your files are not uploaded for mastering.

FAQ — Apple Music mastering