I was reading a Facebook post today by a mastering engineer who was asking for advice about how to increase the loudness levels of his master. His original master had reasonable levels, but his client said, “Make it louder.” Now, the artist didn’t necessarily want it louder, but felt pressured to make it louder to appease the publisher. The engineer was likely going to have to apply aggressive compression and let his true peak levels exceed 0 dB to reach the levels he was targeting. Sigh.
By now we all know that if your music is destined for online streaming, you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot if you attempt to maximize your loudness levels at the expense of fidelity. Your music will be turned down and sound bad.
But what about CDs? There’s no loudness management on CDs. The levels on the disc correspond to the levels you hear. This is perhaps why some people still feel that music must be loud to be competitive. But if this problem is primarily limited to CDs, how relevant is that argument in 2016?
Digital vs. Physical
According to the IFPI, “physical” sales of music (mostly CDs) accounted for 39% of global industry revenues compared to 45% for digital sales last year. CD revenues continued to decline in 2015, by 4.5%, compared to 8.5% in 2014. So, even with declining revenues, CDs are still relevant, at least for a certain demographic…
Young Listeners Want to Stream
Young listeners are driving the growth in streaming services while people aged 40+ continue to prefer the “traditional” ownership model. I can empathize. If you’ve invested in a decent CD player or turntable, amplification and speakers, and already have a collection of CDs (and / or vinyl), you probably don’t want to toss it all away and only listen to music on your phone. I know I don’t. At the same time, streaming services offer convenience and opportunities for discovering new music.
What Do You Do?
So what should the mastering engineer mentioned earlier do? Should he maximize his levels, presumably for a CD release? Should he push back? Is there a happy medium that will preserve dynamics while sounding competitive on the CD?
I don’t think there’s a black and white answer and am interested to hear your thoughts. What advice would you give to the mastering engineer?
