diff --git a/beets/ui/__init__.py b/beets/ui/__init__.py
index 807219b43..e9175fb7f 100644
--- a/beets/ui/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/ui/__init__.py
@@ -122,9 +122,12 @@ def _arg_encoding():
 
 def decargs(arglist):
     """Given a list of command-line argument bytestrings, attempts to
-    decode them to Unicode strings.
+    decode them to Unicode strings when running under Python 2.
     """
-    return [s.decode(_arg_encoding()) for s in arglist]
+    if six.PY2:
+        return [s.decode(_arg_encoding()) for s in arglist]
+    else:
+        return arglist
 
 
 def print_(*strings, **kwargs):