YouTube and Reference Loudness Level

YouTube Reference Loudness Level and “Stats For Nerds”

As we all know, YouTube is a very important platform for music. YouTube used -13 LUFS as its reference level, but later pulled it down "a notch" to -14 LUFS.

So, what happens to the audio part of your track when you upload it to YouTube? If you want to see this in detail, it's very simple!

Stats For Nerds

Right-click on your YouTube video and select the “Stats for nerds” option in the menu that opens.

After giving the “Stats for nerds” command, a small window opens over the video.

This window contains various information about the video. The part that interests us in terms of audio is the “Volume / Normalized” line.

Now let's look at what the data in this line means.

Stats For Nerds Data

1. The first value, expressed as a percentage (%), is the video's volume setting. You can change this using the slider bar that appears when you click the speaker icon below the video. This means the volume level on your computer and phone is the same as the volume setting on your phone.

2. The second value, also expressed as a percentage (%), shows how much reduction is applied to your video's audio. This value depends on the video's volume setting. For example, if the video volume is 100% and the reduction value is 80%; when you pull the video volume down to 50%, the reduction value also decreases to 40%.

3. The third piece of data is the “content loudness” value. This value is constant for every video and does not change even if you change the playback volume.

Content loudness is the most important data for us because this value shows the difference between the loudness value of the track you uploaded and the value YouTube uses as a reference.

Example: If the content loudness appears as 5 dB, this indicates that the loudness level of your video is 5 dB higher than YouTube's reference. In this case, a 5 dB reduction is applied to the video. If the content loudness is a negative value, it indicates that the loudness value of the track you uploaded is lower than YouTube's reference value.

Example: If the content loudness appears as -4 dB, this means that the loudness level of your video is 4 dB below the reference.

In short, Content Loudness is a numerical value that indicates how loud or quiet your video's volume is compared to YouTube's standard volume.

Attention: If the loudness value is higher than the reference, YouTube applies a reduction; however, if it is lower, it does not apply any boost.

Let’s Verify the Calculation…

In previous years (2019), YouTube used -13 LUFS as its reference level. I adjusted the loudness levels of the videos to be approximately -13 LUFS (taking a margin of +/-1 dB into account). (YouTube later pulled the reference down to -14 LUFS.)

You can see the output of the analysis I performed on the master file with Youlean Loudness Meter below:

As seen in the image, the integrated loudness value of the video's audio channel is -12.5 LUFS.

Now let's see how the video is doing on YouTube...

In the video's stats for nerds window, the content loudness appears as 1.5 dB. Since this is a positive value, YouTube reduces the video's volume by 1.5 dB.

YouTube now uses -14 LUFS as a reference. The video I uploaded was -12.5 LUFS. When a 1.5 dB reduction is applied:

(-12.5) – 1.5 = -14 LUFS

Calculation complete! Our verification is also done.

In Conclusion

Stats for nerds is a very useful feature for checking the loudness values in videos you upload, as well as those uploaded by others.

We don't have to target the reference levels of streaming platforms during mastering; each platform's level is different anyway. However, completely ignoring these levels is not correct either. Because the further we deviate from these levels, especially if we go higher, the platforms will lower the level of the track.

If you are working only with videos that will be published on YouTube, it is useful to consider YouTube's reference level with a margin of +/-1 dB. However, based on user feedback, setting the most ideal loudness level between +2 / +5 will be the most accurate choice.