I see it every day: “The Loudness Wars are over - loud won. Get over it”

And it’s easy to see why. The average mainstream release hits -8 LUFS integrated or more; club releases regularly hit -6 or even -4 LUFS and are peaking well above zero; every other post you see on social media is about a new limiter or clipping strategy…

As the creator of Dynamic Range Day and Loudness Penalty, I should probably just give up and get my hat, right ?

Maybe….

But maybe not.

In this episode I dig into the evidence in 2026, and try to decide whether dynamics really are dead or not, looking at:

1. The LUFS of the biggest recent releases
2. Why no-one hears it
3. Are mixes built too loud to be dynamic ?
4. Why music fans don’t care (which could be good news) - and who does
5. What do we do about it ?
6. Reasons to be optimistic about dynamics in 2026

Links and more episodes here:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-106

Mentioned in this episode:

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources