diff --git a/beetsplug/mpdstats.py b/beetsplug/mpdstats.py
index 89b99a9df..4258cbc4c 100644
--- a/beetsplug/mpdstats.py
+++ b/beetsplug/mpdstats.py
@@ -46,20 +46,6 @@ def is_url(path):
     return path.split('://', 1)[0] in ['http', 'https']
 
 
-# Use the MPDClient internals to get unicode.
-# see http://www.tarmack.eu/code/mpdunicode.py for the general idea
-class MPDClient(mpd.MPDClient):
-    def _write_command(self, command, args=[]):
-        args = [six.text_type(arg).encode('utf-8') for arg in args]
-        super(MPDClient, self)._write_command(command, args)
-
-    def _read_line(self):
-        line = super(MPDClient, self)._read_line()
-        if line is not None:
-            return line.decode('utf-8')
-        return None
-
-
 class MPDClientWrapper(object):
     def __init__(self, log):
         self._log = log
@@ -67,7 +53,7 @@ class MPDClientWrapper(object):
         self.music_directory = (
             mpd_config['music_directory'].as_str())
 
-        self.client = MPDClient()
+        self.client = mpd.MPDClient(use_unicode=True)
 
     def connect(self):
         """Connect to the MPD.
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 0a32752d1..667d9b99f 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ Fixes:
 * :doc:`/plugins/replaygain`: Fix Python 3 compatibility in the ``bs1770gain``
   backend. :bug:`2382`
 * :doc:`/plugins/bpd`: Report playback times as integer. :bug:`2394`
+* :doc:`/plugins/mpdstats`: Fix Python 3 compatibility. The plugin also now
+  requires version 0.4.2 or later of the ``python-mpd2`` library. :bug:`2405`
 
 
 1.4.3 (January 9, 2017)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 35131cb55..1019a74a7 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ setup(
         'discogs': ['discogs-client>=2.1.0'],
         'beatport': ['requests-oauthlib>=0.6.1'],
         'lastgenre': ['pylast'],
-        'mpdstats': ['python-mpd2'],
+        'mpdstats': ['python-mpd2>=0.4.2'],
         'web': ['flask', 'flask-cors'],
         'import': ['rarfile'],
         'thumbnails': ['pyxdg'] +