diff --git a/beets/mediafile.py b/beets/mediafile.py
index dba2be139..27f1bb207 100644
--- a/beets/mediafile.py
+++ b/beets/mediafile.py
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ def _sc_decode(soundcheck):
     try:
         soundcheck = soundcheck.replace(' ', '').decode('hex')
         soundcheck = struct.unpack('!iiiiiiiiii', soundcheck)
-    except (struct.error, TypeError):
+    except (struct.error, TypeError, UnicodeEncodeError):
         # SoundCheck isn't in the format we expect, so return default
         # values.
         return 0.0, 0.0
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 94d4d52a6..97ec1e66c 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ Fixes:
   :doc:`/plugins/replaygain`.
 * :doc:`/plugins/replaygain`: Suppress a deprecation warning emitted by later
   version of PyGI.
+* Fix a crash when reading files whose iTunes SoundCheck tags contain
+  non-ASCII characters.
 
 
 1.3.5 (April 15, 2014)
@@ -30,7 +32,7 @@ library module.
 
 The major new features are:
 
-* Beets can now import `zip`, `tar` and `rar` archives. Just type ``beet
+* Beets can now import `zip`, `tar`, and `rar` archives. Just type ``beet
   import music.zip`` to have beets transparently extract the files to import.
 * :doc:`/plugins/replaygain`: Added support for calculating ReplayGain values
   with GStreamer as well the mp3gain program. This enables ReplayGain
@@ -43,8 +45,8 @@ The major new features are:
 In particular, a full complement of features for supporting musical keys are
 new in this release:
 
-* A new `initial_key` is available in the database and files' tags. You can
-  set the field manually using a command like ``beet modify
+* A new `initial_key` field is available in the database and files' tags. You
+  can set the field manually using a command like ``beet modify
   initial_key=Am``.
 * The :doc:`/plugins/echonest` sets the `initial_key` field if the data is
   available.
diff --git a/test/test_mediafile_edge.py b/test/test_mediafile_edge.py
index ad79c6ccc..2a9bccc57 100644
--- a/test/test_mediafile_edge.py
+++ b/test/test_mediafile_edge.py
@@ -255,6 +255,11 @@ class SoundCheckTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(gain, 0.0)
         self.assertEqual(peak, 0.0)
 
+    def test_special_characters(self):
+        gain, peak = beets.mediafile._sc_decode(u'caf\xe9')
+        self.assertEqual(gain, 0.0)
+        self.assertEqual(peak, 0.0)
+
 
 class ID3v23Test(unittest.TestCase, TestHelper):
     def _make_test(self, ext='mp3'):