2024 Mastering Trends Survey Finds Average Integrated LUFS at -8.3

[Monthly Mixing] iZotope has released an analysis of mastering trends for the first half of 2024 based on the Billboard chart.

This data, published on the iZotope website on the 16th (local time), analyzes and compares data from 54 songs that reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Global 200.

To analyze mastering trends, three topics were used: ▲Loudness related to LUFS, ▲Stereo image, and ▲Tonal balance according to frequency range.

The average Integrated LUFS was -8.3 LUFS. With a standard deviation of 1 LU, most of the measured songs were between -9.3 and -7.3 LUFS.

The song with the lowest LUFS measurement was Taylor Swift's 'Who's Afraid of Little Old Me' at -11.1 LUFS, while the highest was Tate McRae's 'greedy' at -6 LUFS.

Meanwhile, the Max Short Term LUFS was between -7 and -5 LUFS, showing a similar distribution to the Integrated LUFS measurement results for each song.

The True-Peak level of 50% of all songs was between 0.00 and +0.75 dBTP. This contrasts with Apple Music's recommendation to keep the True-Peak level below -1 dBTP. The lowest True-Peak levels were -0.3 dBTP for Billie Eilish's 'LUNCH' and 'CHIHIRO'.

For stereo width, 50% of the analyzed songs had side channels 10.9 to -6 LU lower than the mid channel. By genre, pop had the widest stereo width, while hip-hop had the narrowest.

iZotope also created a custom Tonal Balance Control by measuring the frequency range of the songs used in the survey. iZotope Ozone users can download the '2024 Mastering Trends preset' for free and load it into Tonal Balance Control.

The full 'Mastering trends in 2024' data can be found on the iZotope website.

iZotope is a company that develops audio plugins for music producers, engineers, and sound designers, and is widely used in audio restoration, mixing, mastering, and post-production fields.