Audio Requirements for Music Distribution (Spotify, Apple Music)
Every streaming platform has specific audio requirements. Upload the wrong format and your distributor rejects it. Upload a bad master and it sounds worse after their encoding. This guide covers what each platform needs and how to deliver it right.
What to Upload to Your Distributor
Most distributors (DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, Ditto) require WAV files. Specifically: 16-bit or 24-bit, 44.1 kHz, stereo. 24-bit is preferred — it gives the platform more headroom for their encoding. Some accept FLAC as an alternative. Never upload MP3 to a distributor. They will re-encode it, causing double lossy compression. Your music goes through one round of lossy encoding when the streaming service compresses it. Start from lossless so that is the only round.
Spotify Requirements
Spotify encodes all music to OGG Vorbis at various quality tiers: 24 kbps (low), 96 kbps (normal), 160 kbps (high), and 320 kbps (very high/premium). Upload 24-bit WAV at 44.1 kHz for the best results. Spotify normalizes loudness to approximately -14 LUFS. If your master is louder, Spotify turns it down — and heavy limiting artifacts become more apparent at lower volume. Master to -14 LUFS or leave some dynamic range for the normalization to work with.
Apple Music Requirements
Apple Music streams in AAC at 256 kbps for standard quality and ALAC for lossless. They also support Dolby Atmos spatial audio. Upload 24-bit WAV at 44.1 kHz minimum. For Apple Digital Masters (formerly Mastered for iTunes), submit 24-bit, 96 kHz masters. Apple provides tools to preview how your master will sound after AAC encoding. Loudness normalization targets approximately -16 LUFS in Sound Check mode. Master with dynamics intact.
Other Platforms
Tidal: Streams FLAC for HiFi subscribers, AAC for standard. Upload 24-bit WAV. Amazon Music: Streams in various qualities up to Ultra HD (24-bit, 192 kHz). Upload the highest quality WAV you have. YouTube Music: Re-encodes everything to AAC. Upload WAV through your distributor. Bandcamp: Accepts WAV, FLAC, AIFF, and others. Provides listeners with the format they choose, including FLAC downloads. Upload 24-bit WAV.
Mastering for Streaming
The loudness war is over for streaming. Platforms normalize everything. Master to -14 LUFS (Spotify) or -16 LUFS (Apple) and preserve dynamic range. Keep true peaks below -1 dBTP to avoid clipping during encoding. Use a true peak limiter on your master bus. Test your master through Apple's afconvert or Spotify's loudness normalization preview. A dynamic, well-mastered track at -14 LUFS sounds better on streaming platforms than a crushed, limited track at -8 LUFS that gets turned down.