diff --git a/beets/ui/__init__.py b/beets/ui/__init__.py
index e338e46df..71896ab3b 100644
--- a/beets/ui/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/ui/__init__.py
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ CLI commands are implemented in the ui.commands module.
 
 from __future__ import division, absolute_import, print_function
 
-import locale
 import optparse
 import textwrap
 import sys
@@ -108,24 +107,12 @@ def _stream_encoding(stream, default='utf8'):
     return stream.encoding or default
 
 
-def _arg_encoding():
-    """Get the encoding for command-line arguments (and other OS
-    locale-sensitive strings).
-    """
-    try:
-        return locale.getdefaultlocale()[1] or 'utf8'
-    except ValueError:
-        # Invalid locale environment variable setting. To avoid
-        # failing entirely for no good reason, assume UTF-8.
-        return 'utf8'
-
-
 def decargs(arglist):
     """Given a list of command-line argument bytestrings, attempts to
     decode them to Unicode strings when running under Python 2.
     """
     if six.PY2:
-        return [s.decode(_arg_encoding()) for s in arglist]
+        return [s.decode(util.arg_encoding()) for s in arglist]
     else:
         return arglist
 
diff --git a/beets/util/__init__.py b/beets/util/__init__.py
index 17cfc4f0e..ba3070e82 100644
--- a/beets/util/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/util/__init__.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 from __future__ import division, absolute_import, print_function
 import os
 import sys
+import locale
 import re
 import shutil
 import fnmatch
@@ -302,6 +303,18 @@ def components(path):
     return comps
 
 
+def arg_encoding():
+    """Get the encoding for command-line arguments (and other OS
+    locale-sensitive strings).
+    """
+    try:
+        return locale.getdefaultlocale()[1] or 'utf8'
+    except ValueError:
+        # Invalid locale environment variable setting. To avoid
+        # failing entirely for no good reason, assume UTF-8.
+        return 'utf8'
+
+
 def _fsencoding():
     """Get the system's filesystem encoding. On Windows, this is always
     UTF-8 (not MBCS).
diff --git a/beetsplug/convert.py b/beetsplug/convert.py
index 10d5d9a18..fc1c0588d 100644
--- a/beetsplug/convert.py
+++ b/beetsplug/convert.py
@@ -185,9 +185,9 @@ class ConvertPlugin(BeetsPlugin):
 
         # Substitute $source and $dest in the argument list.
         if not six.PY2:
-            command = command.decode(ui._arg_encoding(), 'surrogateescape')
-            source = source.decode(ui._arg_encoding(), 'surrogateescape')
-            dest = dest.decode(ui._arg_encoding(), 'surrogateescape')
+            command = command.decode(util.arg_encoding(), 'surrogateescape')
+            source = source.decode(util.arg_encoding(), 'surrogateescape')
+            dest = dest.decode(util.arg_encoding(), 'surrogateescape')
 
         args = shlex.split(command)
         encode_cmd = []
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ class ConvertPlugin(BeetsPlugin):
             if six.PY2:
                 encode_cmd.append(args[i])
             else:
-                encode_cmd.append(args[i].encode(ui._arg_encoding()))
+                encode_cmd.append(args[i].encode(util.arg_encoding()))
 
         if pretend:
             self._log.info(u' '.join(ui.decargs(args)))
diff --git a/beetsplug/hook.py b/beetsplug/hook.py
index 596c969d0..ff33f0ae4 100644
--- a/beetsplug/hook.py
+++ b/beetsplug/hook.py
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@ import subprocess
 import six
 
 from beets.plugins import BeetsPlugin
-from beets.ui import _arg_encoding
-from beets.util import shlex_split
+from beets.util import shlex_split, arg_encoding
 
 
 class CodingFormatter(string.Formatter):
@@ -99,7 +98,7 @@ class HookPlugin(BeetsPlugin):
 
                 # Use a string formatter that works on Unicode strings.
                 if six.PY2:
-                    formatter = CodingFormatter(_arg_encoding())
+                    formatter = CodingFormatter(arg_encoding())
                 else:
                     formatter = string.Formatter()
 
diff --git a/test/helper.py b/test/helper.py
index 49216f697..f6b0d5ecc 100644
--- a/test/helper.py
+++ b/test/helper.py
@@ -51,7 +51,6 @@ from beets.library import Library, Item, Album
 from beets import importer
 from beets.autotag.hooks import AlbumInfo, TrackInfo
 from beets.mediafile import MediaFile, Image
-from beets.ui import _arg_encoding
 from beets import util
 
 # TODO Move AutotagMock here
@@ -126,10 +125,10 @@ def _convert_args(args):
     for i, elem in enumerate(args):
         if six.PY2:
             if isinstance(elem, six.text_type):
-                args[i] = elem.encode(_arg_encoding())
+                args[i] = elem.encode(util.arg_encoding())
         else:
             if isinstance(elem, bytes):
-                args[i] = elem.decode(_arg_encoding())
+                args[i] = elem.decode(util.arg_encoding())
 
     return args
 
diff --git a/test/test_convert.py b/test/test_convert.py
index 1f1b1a7fb..8d75fbb57 100644
--- a/test/test_convert.py
+++ b/test/test_convert.py
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ from test.helper import control_stdin
 
 from beets.mediafile import MediaFile
 from beets import util
-from beets import ui
 
 
 class TestHelper(helper.TestHelper):
@@ -119,7 +118,7 @@ class ConvertCommand(object):
         """Run the `convert` command on a given path."""
         # The path is currently a filesystem bytestring. Convert it to
         # an argument bytestring.
-        path = path.decode(util._fsencoding()).encode(ui._arg_encoding())
+        path = path.decode(util._fsencoding()).encode(util.arg_encoding())
 
         args = args + (b'path:' + path,)
         return self.run_command('convert', *args)
diff --git a/test/test_ui.py b/test/test_ui.py
index 160d1dfbc..c7de8caab 100644
--- a/test/test_ui.py
+++ b/test/test_ui.py
@@ -1209,7 +1209,7 @@ class CommonOptionsParserCliTest(unittest.TestCase, TestHelper):
 
     def test_format_option_unicode(self):
         l = self.run_with_output(b'ls', b'-f',
-                                 u'caf\xe9'.encode(ui._arg_encoding()))
+                                 u'caf\xe9'.encode(util.arg_encoding()))
         self.assertEqual(l, u'caf\xe9\n')
 
     def test_root_format_option(self):