Streaming loudness normalization weakens the payoff of extreme limiting

Streaming services now normalize playback by subjective loudness rather than peak level, matching tracks so a heavily limited master is turned down to the same loudness as a more dynamic one — undoing the dynamics sacrificed to limiting. In practice, loudness applied to current releases has not dropped much, so loudness skills remain relevant, but forward-looking engineers should routinely check how their mixes compete under loudness-normalized conditions.

Examples

A brick-limited master and a dynamic master play at the same loudness on a normalizing service, but the limited one sounds squashed for no competitive gain.

Assessment

Explain how streaming loudness normalization changes the strategy for loudness processing.