Podcast Loudness & Bitrate: Real‑World Settings That Just Work

October 6, 2025

Copy these and move on — your listeners will thank you.

Quick copy‑paste settings

Loudness target: ‑16 LUFS for talk‑focused shows.
True peak: ≤ ‑1 dBTP to avoid clipping after encoding.
Publishing: M4A (AAC) or MP3 at 128–192 kbps.
Editing: export WAV/FLAC, process, then encode to M4A/MP3.

Bitrate choices

Solo voice: 128 kbps.
Multiple voices / background music: 192 kbps.
Data‑sensitive listeners: 96–128 kbps (AAC is efficient).

VBR vs CBR

VBR (variable) usually sounds better for the same size. CBR (constant) is predictable and friendlier to some legacy players.

How to use our tool

Convert your video to M4A/MP3 for publishing or WAV/FLAC for editing.
In your editor, do cleanup (noise, EQ), gentle compression, and normalize to ‑16 LUFS.
Export the final file (128–192 kbps) and you’re good to go.

Convert your video to podcast‑ready audio

Private, fast, and easy — right in your browser.

Open the Converter