Seperate Masters?

martyb

New member
Just learned that titles can't edited... well, I got most of the letters correct for separate!

When providing tracks for aggregators (Tunecore, CD Baby, etc), their distribution includes streamers (Spotify, etc) as well as sellers that offer downloads.

Those are two very different destinations so far as loudness requirements are concerned with the streaming platform sweet spot in the -14 or -13 LUFS. For downloads, you would want to match other retail material which is mastered to a much louder level.

It doesn't seem aggregators offer a "dual" upload... so what is the solution? Go with a louder output and allow the streamers to reduce your level? Split the difference? Or can an artist have an aggregator represent them, but have access to the download retailers to upload properly mastered tracks directly?
 
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We send the stream master to the aggregators. I don't know if there's a solution in this FP forum other than contacting the aggregator company requesting a different file be sent to the stores. Our other masters were averaging -10 / -11 so we didn't consider it would be that noticeable. If your masters are -4 / -5 LUFS that's maybe a different story.

interesting though...
 
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