Click the meter pic.
Another look at the Loudness War. Some people say “it doesn’t sound loud on YouTube” etc. There are many reasons that may be the case, many are not because of the mix “loudness”.
The bottom line though is that the music is still the most important part, not how “loud” your final master is.
Key takeaways:
“the sound’ of a genre. There are so many other factors that are more important - tonal balance, contrast, arrangement, stereo width, density, intensity, saturation, distortion… there’s much more to sounding loud than just measuring loud.”
“The final point is more complicated. I’ve had the experience myself of comparing two different masters, where one measures much louder than the other and it still seems that way, even when the LUFS are matched. Listening more closely almost always reveals there’s more going on, though. EQ balance plays a massive part in perceived loudness, for example - and the internal dynamic structure of the song plays a crucial role as well - the contrast in level between the verse and the chorus, or between the intro and the drop, for example. In my experience the raw LUFS values very rarely tell the whole story.”
You can debate and manipulate all of this. But the music fan cares not.
They just want great music.