The Mastering Show #95 - Loudness trends in 2024: should you follow them ? with Ian Stewart

The Billboard Top 50 global singles from the first half of 2024 have an average loudness of -8.3 LUFS

So that’s how loud we should be making our masters, right ?

Well…

It certainly might seem that way, but in reality it’s a bit more complicated than that. This is only one of the interesting results that Ian Stewart presented in his latest blog post for iZoTope, and in this episode I asked him back on to really dig into some of the details and nuance.

Plus I also wanted to talk to him about the amazing plug-in that got invented during the last episode he was on ! (Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it 😛)

During the show we talk about:

* What that -8 LUFS average result REALLY means, and how much attention you should pay to it

* Who the most successful artist in the Top 50 is, and the loudness statistics of their music

* The problem with the title iZotope chose for the post

* All the other results, trends and biases in the data

* Basslane Pro, the plug-in Ian worked with Tone Projects to develop, why it’s unique - and how The Mastering Show helped it happen !

Full show notes on our site

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-95

Mentioned in this episode:

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources