Clark County, IN Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

04(A) of the county code makes it unlawful to play, use or operate any machine or device for producing or reproducing sound, expressly naming loudspeakers, radios, CD players, television sets, musical instruments, phonographs and cassette players, if the resulting sound is clearly audible to another person 50 feet or more from its source, whether the source sits on public property (rights-of-way, parks, sidewalks, parking lots) or on private property measured from the property line. The rule is a distance-based audibility test, not a decibel meter reading, so an officer's own ability to hear the sound from 50 feet away is enough to establish a violation.

Subsection (B) exempts a narrow list of situations from this standard, including, at (B)(9), sounds emitted from sound-amplifying devices for which a permit has been obtained under any state or local law or regulation, and, at (B)(4), parades, festivals, carnivals, concerts and similar events authorized by the county Board of Commissioners or another governmental entity. Outside those exemptions, a homeowner running a stereo, a DJ at a private party, or a business playing amplified music that carries 50 feet past the property line is in violation regardless of intent. 99(C)(5).