Guides for musicians and streamers
For artists
How to get a track ready for a review and for release: loudness, peaks, file quality, tempo and key.
How to prepare a track for a review on stream: a checklist
File format, loudness, peaks, version name and questions for the streamer — what to check in 10 minutes before sending, so the review is about the music, not technical mistakes.
Loudness for streaming platforms: −14 LUFS, −1 dBTP true peak and normalization
What Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and Yandex Music actually do with a track’s loudness, where −14 LUFS comes from and why an over-compressed master loses.
LUFS, PLR and LRA explained in plain words
Integrated, Short-term, Momentary, LRA, PLR and PSR — what each number on a loudness meter shows and which values count as normal.
Clipping and true peak: how to find and fix them
Why a track that sounded clean in your DAW crackles on a streaming platform. Digital clipping, inter-sample peaks, codec overload — and how to get rid of all of it.
Upscaled MP3: how to tell a file isn’t what it claims, and why it matters
A WAV made from an MP3 is five times bigger but sounds the same. How to spot upscaling on a spectrogram, where the false alarms are and how not to send the wrong file.
A track’s BPM and key: why you need them and how the Camelot system works
Tempo and key aren’t just for DJs. How to read Camelot codes, which keys go together and why an analyzer sometimes shows “the wrong thing”.
How to find a streamer who reviews tracks
Where to find streams with track reviews, how to pick a channel for your genre and how not to get lost in the queue.
For streamers
How to run a music stream, set up sound and overlays, earn from track reviews and avoid copyright strikes.
How a streamer can earn from track reviews
Donations for priority, queue modes, offline reviews and services for artists — which models work and how to keep money from spoiling the honesty of your scores.
How to set up OBS for a music stream: audio, player capture and overlays
Sound with no echo or double capture, a microphone that doesn’t drown in the music, and overlays that don’t eat your CPU. OBS setup for music streams.
Copyright on stream: why other people’s releases are risky and how the copyright check works
What another artist’s release on air can cost you, why even an artist’s own released track can bring a claim and how an audio-fingerprint check helps the streamer.