Loudness War
Definition
A decades-long trend in music production — peaking in the mid-2000s — in which mastering engineers were pressured to make each release louder than the last, sacrificing dynamic range for maximum average loudness. The introduction of loudness normalization on streaming platforms effectively ended the loudness war by removing the competitive advantage of being louder.
In Simple Terms
The era when everyone made their music as loud as physically possible, crushing all the dynamics out of recordings. Streaming platforms fixed this — now everything plays at the same volume regardless of how loud you master it. Making it louder no longer wins; making it sound better does.
In Practice
A remastered album from 2008 measures at -6 LUFS with an LRA of 3 LU — virtually no dynamics. The original 1985 version of the same album sits at -14 LUFS with an LRA of 12 LU. On Spotify, the 1985 version sounds more alive and impactful because loudness normalization eliminates the volume advantage of the crushed remaster.