diff --git a/beets/autotag/mb.py b/beets/autotag/mb.py
index e6a2e277f..3bd7e8c81 100644
--- a/beets/autotag/mb.py
+++ b/beets/autotag/mb.py
@@ -117,11 +117,20 @@ def _preferred_alias(aliases):
     # Only consider aliases that have locales set.
     aliases = [a for a in aliases if 'locale' in a]
 
+    # Get any ignored alias types and lower case them to prevent case issues
+    ignored_alias_types = config['import']['ignored_alias_types'].as_str_seq()
+    ignored_alias_types = [a.lower() for a in ignored_alias_types]
+
     # Search configured locales in order.
     for locale in config['import']['languages'].as_str_seq():
-        # Find matching primary aliases for this locale.
-        matches = [a for a in aliases
-                   if a['locale'] == locale and 'primary' in a]
+        # Find matching primary aliases for this locale that are not
+        # being ignored
+        matches = []
+        for a in aliases:
+            if a['locale'] == locale and 'primary' in a and \
+               a.get('type', '').lower() not in ignored_alias_types:
+                matches.append(a)
+
         # Skip to the next locale if we have no matches
         if not matches:
             continue
diff --git a/beets/config_default.yaml b/beets/config_default.yaml
index 6afb3e5a4..40598ae6a 100644
--- a/beets/config_default.yaml
+++ b/beets/config_default.yaml
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ import:
     duplicate_action: ask
     bell: no
     set_fields: {}
+    ignored_alias_types: []
 
 clutter: ["Thumbs.DB", ".DS_Store"]
 ignore: [".*", "*~", "System Volume Information", "lost+found"]
diff --git a/beets/util/__init__.py b/beets/util/__init__.py
index 720ca311a..06e02ee08 100644
--- a/beets/util/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/util/__init__.py
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 import os
 import sys
 import errno
-import locale
 import re
 import tempfile
 import shutil
@@ -332,12 +331,7 @@ def arg_encoding():
     """Get the encoding for command-line arguments (and other OS
     locale-sensitive strings).
     """
-    try:
-        return locale.getdefaultlocale()[1] or 'utf-8'
-    except ValueError:
-        # Invalid locale environment variable setting. To avoid
-        # failing entirely for no good reason, assume UTF-8.
-        return 'utf-8'
+    return sys.getfilesystemencoding()
 
 
 def _fsencoding():
@@ -837,13 +831,14 @@ def cpu_count():
 
 
 def convert_command_args(args):
-    """Convert command arguments to bytestrings on Python 2 and
-    surrogate-escaped strings on Python 3."""
+    """Convert command arguments, which may either be `bytes` or `str`
+    objects, to uniformly surrogate-escaped strings.
+    """
     assert isinstance(args, list)
 
     def convert(arg):
         if isinstance(arg, bytes):
-            arg = arg.decode(arg_encoding(), 'surrogateescape')
+            return os.fsdecode(arg)
         return arg
 
     return [convert(a) for a in args]
@@ -1092,21 +1087,3 @@ def lazy_property(func):
         return value
 
     return wrapper
-
-
-def decode_commandline_path(path):
-    """Prepare a path for substitution into commandline template.
-
-    On Python 3, we need to construct the subprocess commands to invoke as a
-    Unicode string. On Unix, this is a little unfortunate---the OS is
-    expecting bytes---so we use surrogate escaping and decode with the
-    argument encoding, which is the same encoding that will then be
-    *reversed* to recover the same bytes before invoking the OS. On
-    Windows, we want to preserve the Unicode filename "as is."
-    """
-    # On Python 3, the template is a Unicode string, which only supports
-    # substitution of Unicode variables.
-    if platform.system() == 'Windows':
-        return path.decode(_fsencoding())
-    else:
-        return path.decode(arg_encoding(), 'surrogateescape')
diff --git a/beetsplug/convert.py b/beetsplug/convert.py
index b08b221a5..d427bc8b8 100644
--- a/beetsplug/convert.py
+++ b/beetsplug/convert.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 """Converts tracks or albums to external directory
 """
-from beets.util import par_map, decode_commandline_path, arg_encoding
+from beets.util import par_map, arg_encoding
 
 import os
 import threading
@@ -216,8 +216,8 @@ class ConvertPlugin(BeetsPlugin):
             self._log.info('Encoding {0}', util.displayable_path(source))
 
         command = command.decode(arg_encoding(), 'surrogateescape')
-        source = decode_commandline_path(source)
-        dest = decode_commandline_path(dest)
+        source = os.fsdecode(source)
+        dest = os.fsdecode(dest)
 
         # Substitute $source and $dest in the argument list.
         args = shlex.split(command)
diff --git a/beetsplug/duplicates.py b/beetsplug/duplicates.py
index fdd5c1750..f655c61f2 100644
--- a/beetsplug/duplicates.py
+++ b/beetsplug/duplicates.py
@@ -16,11 +16,12 @@
 """
 
 import shlex
+import os
 
 from beets.plugins import BeetsPlugin
 from beets.ui import decargs, print_, Subcommand, UserError
 from beets.util import command_output, displayable_path, subprocess, \
-    bytestring_path, MoveOperation, decode_commandline_path
+    bytestring_path, MoveOperation
 from beets.library import Item, Album
 
 
@@ -200,7 +201,7 @@ class DuplicatesPlugin(BeetsPlugin):
         output as flexattr on a key that is the name of the program, and
         return the key, checksum tuple.
         """
-        args = [p.format(file=decode_commandline_path(item.path))
+        args = [p.format(file=os.fsdecode(item.path))
                 for p in shlex.split(prog)]
         key = args[0]
         checksum = getattr(item, key, False)
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 1de7b8e5f..a5ed9cb56 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ New features:
   :bug:`4379` :bug:`4387`
 * Add :ref:`%sunique{} <sunique>` template to disambiguate between singletons.
   :bug:`4438`
+* Add a new ``import.ignored_alias_types`` config option to allow for
+  specific alias types to be skipped over when importing items/albums.
 
 Bug fixes:
 
@@ -53,6 +55,10 @@ Bug fixes:
 * :doc:`/plugins/replaygain`: Avoid a crash when errors occur in the analysis
   backend.
   :bug:`4506`
+* We now use Python's defaults for command-line argument encoding, which
+  should reduce the chance for errors and "file not found" failures when
+  invoking other command-line tools, especially on Windows.
+  :bug:`4507`
 * We now respect the Spotify API's rate limiting, which avoids crashing when the API reports code 429 (too many requests).
   :bug:`4370`
 * Fix implicit paths OR queries (e.g. ``beet list /path/ , /other-path/``)
diff --git a/docs/plugins/aura.rst b/docs/plugins/aura.rst
index 83c186249..eadb9ef38 100644
--- a/docs/plugins/aura.rst
+++ b/docs/plugins/aura.rst
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ then see :ref:`aura-external-server`.
 AURA is designed to separate the client and server functionality. This plugin
 provides the server but not the client, so unless you like looking at JSON you
 will need a separate client. Currently the only client is `AURA Web Client`_.
+In order to use a local browser client with ``file:///`` see :ref:`aura-cors`.
 
 By default the API is served under http://127.0.0.1:8337/aura/. For example
 information about the track with an id of 3 can be obtained at
@@ -97,11 +98,18 @@ For example::
             - http://www.example.com
             - https://aura.example.org
 
-Alternatively you can set it to ``'*'`` to enable access from all origins.
+In order to use the plugin with a local browser client accessed using
+``file:///`` you must inclue ``'null'`` in the list of allowed origins
+(including quote marks)::
+
+    aura:
+        cors:
+            - 'null'
+
+Alternatively you use ``'*'`` to enable access from all origins.
 Note that there are security implications if you set the origin to ``'*'``,
 so please research this before using it. Note the use of quote marks when
-allowing all origins. Quote marks are also required when the origin is
-``null``, for example when using ``file:///``.
+allowing all origins.
 
 If the server is behind a proxy that uses credentials, you might want to set
 the ``cors_supports_credentials`` configuration option to true to let
diff --git a/docs/reference/config.rst b/docs/reference/config.rst
index 99f916e88..afabe1aa0 100644
--- a/docs/reference/config.rst
+++ b/docs/reference/config.rst
@@ -652,6 +652,17 @@ MusicBrainz. You can use a space-separated list of language abbreviations, like
 ``en jp es``, to specify a preference order. Defaults to an empty list, meaning 
 that no language is preferred.
 
+.. _ignored_alias_types:
+
+ignored_alias_types
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A list of alias types to be ignored when importing new items.
+
+See the `MusicBrainz Documentation` for more information on aliases.
+
+.._MusicBrainz Documentation: https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Aliases
+
 .. _detail:
 
 detail
diff --git a/test/test_util.py b/test/test_util.py
index fcaf9f5ce..14ac7f2b2 100644
--- a/test/test_util.py
+++ b/test/test_util.py
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ class UtilTest(unittest.TestCase):
             ])
         self.assertEqual(p, 'foo/_/bar')
 
+    @unittest.skipIf(sys.platform == 'win32', 'win32')
     def test_convert_command_args_keeps_undecodeable_bytes(self):
         arg = b'\x82'  # non-ascii bytes
         cmd_args = util.convert_command_args([arg])