diff --git a/beetsplug/mpdstats.py b/beetsplug/mpdstats.py
index 2b6422942..b1a01b52e 100644
--- a/beetsplug/mpdstats.py
+++ b/beetsplug/mpdstats.py
@@ -40,9 +40,10 @@ mpd_config = config['mpd']
 def is_url(path):
     """Try to determine if the path is an URL.
     """
+    if isinstance(path, bytes):  # if it's bytes, then it's a path
+        return False
     return path.split('://', 1)[0] in ['http', 'https']
 
-
 # Use the MPDClient internals to get unicode.
 # see http://www.tarmack.eu/code/mpdunicode.py for the general idea
 class MPDClient(mpd.MPDClient):