Dane County, WI Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

04 defines 'excessive noise' as any sound of sufficient loudness that it tends unreasonably to disturb the peace, comfort, quiet or repose of persons nearby, expressly including noise from a radio, phonograph, tape or disc player, television, or other mechanical or electrical device, machine, or motor vehicle, covering amplified music from speakers, car stereos, and PA systems. Under sub. (2), no person may cause or participate in producing such noise, and no property owner, occupant, or other person in charge of property may cause, suffer, permit, or participate in it.

The prohibition is subjective and complaint-driven rather than decibel-metered: there is no fixed sound-level number in the ordinance, so enforcement turns on whether the noise 'tends unreasonably' to disturb others in the vicinity. Sub. (3) limits the ordinance's reach to unincorporated Dane County and any municipality without its own noise ordinance on the same subject, Madison, Sun Prairie, and the county's other cities and villages enforce their own local noise codes instead. Sub. (4) exempts noise necessary to protect property, health, safety, or life, noise otherwise required or permitted by law, noise from any activity already regulated by law, and noise from agricultural operations.

Enforcement rests with the Dane County Sheriff's Department, which processes complaints and issues citations for violations occurring in the unincorporated towns and any municipality that has not adopted its own noise rule.