Smyrna, TN Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

Amplified sound is handled in Smyrna's anti-noise section, § 11-401 of the Municipal Code, through three enumerated items. Subsection (1)(b) covers radios, phonographs, and the like. It prohibits playing any radio, phonograph, musical instrument, or sound device, including loudspeakers and other devices for reproducing or amplifying sound, in such a manner or with such volume as to annoy or disturb the quiet, comfort, or repose of persons in an office, hospital, dwelling, hotel, or other residence, or of any person in the vicinity. The words 'particularly during the hours between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.' single out the overnight window, but the rule is not confined to it, because the disturbance test applies at any hour.

Subsection (1)(k) targets noise used to attract attention: the use of any drum, loudspeaker, or other noise-emitting device to draw attention to a performance, show, or sale or display of merchandise. Subsection (1)(l) bars mechanical loudspeakers or amplifiers on trucks or other moving or standing vehicles for advertising or other purposes.

There is no decibel limit and no measuring distance in the section. The standard is the effect on a person in the vicinity, which is why the same music can be lawful in one setting and a violation in another.

Subsection (2)(c) sets the one exception for amplification. The reasonable use of amplifiers or loudspeakers in public addresses that are noncommercial in character, and in advertising functions sponsored by nonprofit organizations, is not enforced against, but no such use can be made until a permit is secured from the Town Clerk. The permit designates the hours, and use is restricted to the hours stated in it. Subsection (2)(a) also exempts town vehicles engaged in necessary public business.