diff --git a/beetsplug/absubmit.py b/beetsplug/absubmit.py
index 3d21c469c..0c288b9d8 100644
--- a/beetsplug/absubmit.py
+++ b/beetsplug/absubmit.py
@@ -133,8 +133,8 @@ class AcousticBrainzSubmitPlugin(plugins.BeetsPlugin):
                     item=item, error=e
                 )
                 return None
-            with open(filename) as tmp_file:
-                analysis = json.loads(tmp_file.read())
+            with open(filename, 'rb') as tmp_file:
+                analysis = json.load(tmp_file)
             # Add the hash to the output.
             analysis['metadata']['version']['essentia_build_sha'] = \
                 self.extractor_sha
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 2e4f1be54..413cf0df0 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ Fixes:
   music. :bug:`2667`
 * :doc:`/plugins/chroma`: Fix a crash when running the ``submit`` command on
   Python 3 on Windows with non-ASCII filenames. :bug:`2671`
+* :doc:`/plugins/absubmit`: Fix an occasional crash on Python 3 when the AB
+  analysis tool produced non-ASCII metadata. :bug:`2673`
 
 For developers: