diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 40a87fdba..eb5c82733 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+1.0b6
+-----
+* Fix crash in lastid when the artist name is not available.
+
 1.0b5
 -----
 * A new plugin, "lastid", adds Last.fm acoustic fingerprinting support
diff --git a/beetsplug/lastid.py b/beetsplug/lastid.py
index 99622b520..fa37b07e9 100644
--- a/beetsplug/lastid.py
+++ b/beetsplug/lastid.py
@@ -108,9 +108,10 @@ class LastIdPlugin(BeetsPlugin):
 
         # Compare artist to MusicBrainz metadata.
         dist, dist_max = 0.0, 0.0
-        dist += autotag.string_dist(last_artist, info['artist']) \
-                * autotag.ARTIST_WEIGHT
-        dist_max += autotag.ARTIST_WEIGHT
+        if last_artist:
+            dist += autotag.string_dist(last_artist, info['artist']) \
+                    * autotag.ARTIST_WEIGHT
+            dist_max += autotag.ARTIST_WEIGHT
 
         log.debug('Last artist (%s/%s) distance: %f' %
                   (last_artist, info['artist'], dist/dist_max))
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e101ef6a7..e1a930cc6 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ def _read(fn):
     return open(path).read()
 
 setup(name='beets',
-      version='1.0b5',
+      version='1.0b6',
       description='music tagger and library organizer',
       author='Adrian Sampson',
       author_email='adrian@radbox.org',