diff --git a/beetsplug/echonest.py b/beetsplug/echonest.py
index 6403c7b64..481ba26fd 100644
--- a/beetsplug/echonest.py
+++ b/beetsplug/echonest.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ RETRY_INTERVAL = 10
 
 DEVNULL = open(os.devnull, 'wb')
 ALLOWED_FORMATS = ('MP3', 'OGG', 'AAC')
+UPLOAD_MAX_SIZE = 50 * 1024 * 1024
 
 # The attributes we can import and where to store them in beets fields.
 ATTRIBUTES = {
@@ -111,6 +112,7 @@ class EchonestMetadataPlugin(plugins.BeetsPlugin):
             'codegen': None,
             'upload':  True,
             'convert': True,
+            'truncate': True,
         })
         self.config.add(ATTRIBUTES)
 
@@ -310,6 +312,36 @@ class EchonestMetadataPlugin(plugins.BeetsPlugin):
         )
         return dest
 
+    def truncate(self, item):
+        """Truncates an item to a size less than UPLOAD_MAX_SIZE."""
+        fd, dest = tempfile.mkstemp(u'.ogg')
+        os.close(fd)
+        source = item.path
+
+        log.info(u'echonest: truncating {0} to {1}'.format(
+            util.displayable_path(source),
+            util.displayable_path(dest),
+        ))
+
+        command = u'ffmpeg -t 300 -i $source -y -acodec copy $dest'
+        opts = []
+        for arg in command.split():
+            arg = arg.encode('utf-8')
+            opts.append(Template(arg).substitute(source=source, dest=dest))
+
+        # Run the command.
+        try:
+            util.command_output(opts)
+        except (OSError, subprocess.CalledProcessError) as exc:
+            log.debug(u'echonest: truncate failed: {0}'.format(exc))
+            util.remove(dest)
+            return
+
+        log.info(u'echonest: truncate encoding {0}'.format(
+            util.displayable_path(source))
+        )
+        return dest
+
     def analyze(self, item):
         """Upload the item to the EchoNest for analysis. May require to
         convert the item to a supported media format.
@@ -326,6 +358,15 @@ class EchonestMetadataPlugin(plugins.BeetsPlugin):
             else:
                 return
 
+        if os.stat(item.path).st_size > UPLOAD_MAX_SIZE:
+            if config['echonest']['truncate']:
+                source = self.convert(item)
+                if not source:
+                    log.debug(u'echonest: failed to truncate file')
+                    return
+            else:
+                return
+
         # Upload the audio file.
         log.info(u'echonest: uploading file, please be patient')
         track = self._echofun(pyechonest.track.track_from_filename,
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 00d633850..7bd6552a7 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ New stuff:
 * :doc:`/plugins/lyrics`: Lyrics should now be found for more songs. Searching
   is now sensitive to featured artists and parenthesized title suffixes.
   When a song has multiple titles, lyrics from all the named songs are now
-  concatenated. Thanks to Fabrice Laporte and Paul Phillips. 
+  concatenated. Thanks to Fabrice Laporte and Paul Phillips.
 * Add support for `initial_key` as field in the library and tag for
   media files. When the user sets this field with ``beet modify
   initial_key=Am`` the media files will reflect this in their tags. The
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ New stuff:
 
 Fixes:
 
+* :doc:`/plugins/echonest`: Truncate files larger than 50MB before uploading for
+  analysis.
 * :doc:`/plugins/fetchart`: Fix a crash when the server does not specify a
   content type. Thanks to Lee Reinhardt.
 * :doc:`/plugins/convert`: The ``--keep-new`` flag now works correctly
diff --git a/docs/plugins/echonest.rst b/docs/plugins/echonest.rst
index b1d7e8240..0c2481d3a 100644
--- a/docs/plugins/echonest.rst
+++ b/docs/plugins/echonest.rst
@@ -71,13 +71,21 @@ can not be identified by other means.  If you don't want that, disable the
     echonest:
         upload: no
 
-The Echo Nest server only supports a limited range of file formats.  The
-``plugin`` automatically converts unsupported files to ``ogg``.  If you don't
-want that, disable the ``convert`` config option like so::
+The Echo Nest server only supports a limited range of file formats.  The plugin
+automatically converts unsupported files to ``ogg``.  If you don't want that,
+disable the ``convert`` config option like so::
 
     echonest:
         convert: no
 
+The Echo Nest server does not allow uploading of files with sizes greater than
+50MB. The plugin automatically truncates large files to their first 5
+minutes. If you don't want that, disable the ``truncate`` config option like
+so::
+
+    echonest:
+        truncate: no
+
 To enable fingerprinting, you'll need to tell the plugin where to find the
 Echoprint or ENMFP codegen binary. Use the ``codegen`` key under the
 ``echonest`` section like so::