AES E-Library

The Loudness War: Do Louder, Hypercompressed Recordings Sell Better?

[Feature] The term “loudness war” refers to the ongoing competitive increase in the loudness of commercially distributed music. While this increase has been facilitated by the use of dynamic range compression, limiting, and clipping, the underlying cause is the belief that louder recordings sell better. This paper briefly reviews some possible side effects of the loudness war and presents evidence questioning the assumption that loudness is significantly correlated to listener preference and sales ranking.

Author: Vickers, Earl
Affiliation: STMicroelectronics, Inc.
JAES Volume 59 Issue 5 pp. 346-351; May 2011 Import into BibTeX

Click to purchase paper or login as an AES member. If your company or school subscribes to the AES Journal then you can look for this paper in the institutional version of the Online Journal. If you are not an AES member and would like to subscribe to the E-Library then Join the AES!

This paper costs $20 for non-members, $5 for AES members and is free for E-Library subscribers.

Learn more about the AES E-Library

E-Library Location: (CD JAES59)   /jaes59/5/pg346.pdf

Join the discussion about this feature! (19 comments)