Loudness War petition for music streaming services

Hi everyone,

If you're familiar with the Loudness War (which is of course not really about loudness - but about sound quality), you might find this petition of interest: https://www.change.org/p/music-streaming-services-bring-peace-to-the-loudness-war

The idea is that, if all streaming services adopt the AES recommendations for normalization of perceived loudness (not peak normalization, of course), then artists will feel much less pressure to use more dynamic compression than their artistic vision requires. They'll have the freedom to choose exactly the dynamic range they want, without worrying about being too quiet or too loud.

It's picking up quite a bit of steam - as of this posting it's been live for under 24 hours and is already over 1000 signatures!

Please consider signing and sharing the petition if you agree. Thanks!

Matt

Since the beginning of recorded music musicians have wanted their own music to be louder than everybody else's.

Your petition will never change that. I'm not signing it.

Yeah, it's a commercial product, designed to be half-way listened to on probably very-cheap equipment (or, maybe not ...), through two white ear-buds, while the listener is skating down the sidewalk. Or, maybe it's designed to physically shake the car that's right now in the lane next to you at the stop-light.

Either way, we probably aren't talking "high fidelity" here. 8)

Ever since the days of AM Radio, people have been dealing with the fact that the playback-device which would actually render what the listener heard ... was more-or-less junk. (And the listener, more-or-less deaf(ened) ...)

Either way ... "if you really want your music to sound different from all the rest," there's absolutely nothing stopping you from mixing your tracks any way you want to. Maybe you'll start a cool new trend, and next year Rolling Stone will be effusing about your wisdom. "If you want something to be done differently, be the [first] one to do it."

Since the beginning of recorded music musicians have wanted their own music to be louder than everybody else's.

Not true... the loudness war started in the 90s. Unless you want to say that before that time, there were no recordings

Your petition will never change that. I'm not signing it.

Sounds very short sighted to me. At least it's a try, that doesn't cost anything. Or do you still think you can win the loudness war? *hihihi* 8)

I signed. My customers are very happy when their Techno or House tune doesn't exceed -10dB LUFS, and I'm trying to get them down to -12. The impact of the drop is much bigger, because the break isn't squashed to hell. That first kick punches harder

An interesting observation. "Now that you mention it," even my un-tutored ears have noticed that modern-day songs "become more frantic" as they head for the back-nine, but their dynamics really don't change. There's no such thing as a punchy bass. The volume never builds to a crescendo:  it starts out that way. (I sometimes wonder if one reason why female vocalists' voices are squished into such a "reedy" sound is so that more stuff can be packed-in around them.)

Volume ... specifically, variations in volume ... could be something that makes a song stand out from the pack.

If the song starts out "crowded," it has nowhere to go. It can't use differences in volume. It doesn't know what silence is.

Not true... the loudness war started in the 90s. Unless you want to say that before that time, there were no recordings

It goes back at least as far as the 60s with EMI struggling to get their cuts as loud as Motown and Atlantic. Go and read your music history.

Not true... the loudness war started in the 90s. Unless you want to say that before that time, there were no recordings

It goes back at least as far as the 60s with EMI struggling to get their cuts as loud as Motown and Atlantic. Go and read your music history.

Thanks for telling me. According to other sources (Wikipedia, Bob Katz Mastering Book), the nowadays loudness war started in the 90s.

However, is this your excuse to not support more dynamics? I find that totally lame....

Or are you going to blame manufacturers like Fairchild for inventing the compressor?

It's your decision to participate the loudness race, I hope for you you'll win it Have fun

PS: Just mastered a dance track yesterday not even hitting -11dB LUFS, and that drop really hits hard when listening on a loud PA.

Another participant for the loudness war...

I guess he's winning it...

I used to press toward -8 dB LUFS. When I pulled back to -11, it was like hearing new songs. Having watched Ian Shepherd and Bob Katz on YouTube, with examples of Michael Jackson's remastered stuff over the years, and gain-adjusted track examples using compression algorithms similar to those of Spotify/Pandora on already-mastered tracks, it's pretty obvious that if I'm going to release for digital streaming I should keep things less "warlike."

Bob Katz speaks on the topic at AES conventions, he even declares the loudness war "won" since the publication of streaming specs by the big companies and "proves" how bad very loud masters sound when played using those specs. Still, on and on it goes.

I think this issue is a little like "Mac vs. PC," or politics. There ain't gonna be a lot of changing people's minds on the topic. Doesn't it come down to who is paying the bill—big corporation record company, or individual artist footing their own bill? I choose to be less loud.

OK an appropriate threat to put this funny video