--- title: "AES TD1008 — Streaming Loudness" description: "AES TD1008 recommends −18 LUFS for speech and interstitials, −16 LUFS for track-normalised music and −14 LUFS for album-normalised, with true peak below −1 dBTP at the codec input." canonical_url: "https://elephantaudio.pk/reference/aes-td1008" type: "Article" date_modified: "2026-09-28T16:35:20+05:00" publisher: "Elephant Audio" publisher_url: "https://elephantaudio.pk" source_kind: "published-standard" source_url: "https://aes.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/20210924_TD1008_v3.13.pdf" source_fetched_at: "2026-09-28" entities: - name: "Lahore" type: "City" same_as: - "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11739" - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahore" - name: "Pakistan" type: "Country" same_as: - "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q843" - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan" author: name: "Abu Bakar Zahid" role: "Founder, Managing Director & Music Producer at Elephant Audio" url: "https://elephantaudio.pk/founder" same_as: - "https://www.linkedin.com/in/abubakarzahid94" - "https://www.youtube.com/@AbuBakarZahid" - "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12369947/" - "https://open.spotify.com/artist/1vsRY1hLmqEBXcx5xeKs0m" - "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/abu-bakar-zahid/1654787374" - "https://www.deezer.com/us/artist/190524117" - "https://on.soundcloud.com/EnpcD" - "https://www.instagram.com/abubakarzahid94/" - "https://www.facebook.com/abubakarzahid9400/" - "https://twitter.com/abubakarzahid94" - "https://soundsofpakistan.com/artist/abu-bakar-zahid/" person: "Abu Bakar Zahid" person_same_as: - "https://www.linkedin.com/in/abubakarzahid94" - "https://www.youtube.com/@AbuBakarZahid" - "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12369947/" - "https://open.spotify.com/artist/1vsRY1hLmqEBXcx5xeKs0m" - "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/abu-bakar-zahid/1654787374" - "https://www.deezer.com/us/artist/190524117" - "https://on.soundcloud.com/EnpcD" - "https://www.instagram.com/abubakarzahid94/" - "https://www.facebook.com/abubakarzahid9400/" - "https://twitter.com/abubakarzahid94" - "https://soundsofpakistan.com/artist/abu-bakar-zahid/" --- # AES TD1008 — Streaming Loudness ## What loudness does AES TD1008 recommend for streaming? AES TD1008 recommends a Distribution Loudness of −18 LUFS for assorted and speech content and for interstitials, −16 LUFS for track-normalised music, and −14 LUFS for album-normalised music such as on-demand services. Upper tolerance is +1 LU where speech is measurable, +2 LU where it is not, and +0.2 LU for music and interstitials. Maximum true peak is −1 dBTP at the codec input of lossy-encoded streams. −18 LUFS Speech / assorted (+1 LU where speech is measurable) · −16 LUFS Music, track-normalised (+0.2 LU) · −14 LUFS Music, album-normalised (loudest track, on-demand services) · −1 dBTP true peak (measured at the CODEC INPUT) One stream, several targets: Every other recommendation in this reference sets one number for one kind of delivery. TD1008 does something different: it accepts that a single service carries speech, music and advertising, and sets a target for each rather than averaging them into a compromise nobody wants. That is why a podcast with music beds and a music album can sit on the same platform without one of them sounding wrong. The document is written for distributors, not for mastering engineers, but the targets are the numbers a mastering engineer is being measured against. Table 1 — Distribution Loudness by content type: Read directly from the document. Each line is one row: content type, target, upper tolerance, measurement method. The tolerance is the part most summaries drop, and it is not the same for every row: - Assorted, speech is measurable — −18 LUFS, +1 LU, Dialog Integrated Loudness. - Assorted, speech is not measurable — −18 LUFS, +2 LU, format-specific (Table 2). - Music, track-normalised — −16 LUFS, +0.2 LU, integrated loudness. - Music, album by loudest track — −14 LUFS, +0.2 LU, integrated loudness. - Interstitial — −18 LUFS, +0.2 LU, integrated loudness. - Virtual assistant — −18 LUFS, no tolerance stated, integrated loudness. Track-normalised and album-normalised are not the same target: This is the distinction the document exists to make and the one that is almost always lost. Where a service normalises each track independently, the target is −16 LUFS. Where it normalises an album as a whole — using the loudest track to set the gain for the set, which is how on-demand music services preserve the relative levels an artist intended — the target is −14 LUFS. Two decibels is not a rounding difference. Mastering an album to the track-normalised figure gives away level the service was going to let you keep; mastering a single to the album figure spends dynamic range the service is going to take back. The true-peak ceiling is measured somewhere specific: The document asks that maximum true peak not exceed −1 dBTP AT THE CODEC INPUT of lossy-encoded streams. The location matters. Lossy encoding can raise peaks above what the source file measured, so a file that reads exactly −1 dBTP before encoding is not guaranteed to hold it afterwards. That is the same reasoning behind Spotify advising −2 dBTP for louder masters, and behind EBU R 128 limiting true peak rather than sample peak. What the footnotes cover: The scope notes decide which row applies to your delivery: - Assorted covers radio-style streams, musical concert performances, and podcasts containing speech, music and/or effects elements. - Dialog Integrated Loudness applies when speech, music and effects are produced with reference to a speech anchor. - Virtual assistant loudness is integrated loudness of the device's output preceding its volume control. The source: Read from the AES technical document itself: - AESTD1008 — Recommendations for Loudness of Internet Audio Streaming and On-Demand Distribution — Published 2021-09-24, originally 2021-08-30. Prepared by the Study Group on Streaming Audio Loudness of the Technical Committee for Broadcasting and Online Delivery. Read 2026-09-28.: https://aes.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/20210924_TD1008_v3.13.pdf ## Frequently asked questions ### Is AES TD1008 a requirement or a recommendation? A recommendation, and it is addressed to distributors rather than to the people delivering files. No platform rejects a master for missing these numbers. Its value is that it is the only document setting targets per content type on a mixed stream, so it describes what a well-behaved service is trying to do to your audio. ### Which figure applies to a single released to streaming? −16 LUFS if the service normalises each track independently, −14 LUFS if it normalises by album using the loudest track. The document separates the two because they are different jobs; a master optimised for one is two decibels wrong for the other. ### Why is the true-peak ceiling specified at the codec input? Because lossy encoding can push peaks higher than the source file measured. Holding −1 dBTP before encoding does not guarantee holding it after, which is why the recommendation names the measurement point rather than just the number. ## Related - [Measure integrated loudness and true peak](https://elephantaudio.pk/loudness-meter) - [What one streaming service actually does](https://elephantaudio.pk/reference/spotify/raw) - [The broadcast equivalent](https://elephantaudio.pk/reference/ebu-r128/raw) - [Mastering to a delivery target](https://elephantaudio.pk/services/mix-master/raw) ## Studio - **Studio:** Elephant Audio — Lahore, Pakistan - **Founder:** Abu Bakar Zahid — Founder, Managing Director & Music Producer at Elephant Audio - **Website:** https://elephantaudio.pk - **Contact:** abubakar@elephantaudio.pk