diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index f98de31de..bd98b5431 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
 * Fix a bug where some files would be erroneously interpreted as MP4.
 * Fix permission bits applied to album art files.
 * Fix malformed MusicBrainz queries caused by null characters.
+# Fix a bug with old versions of the Monkey's Audio format.
 * Retry in more cases when MusicBrainz servers are slow/overloaded.
 * The old "albumify" plugin for upgrading databases was removed.
 
diff --git a/beets/mediafile.py b/beets/mediafile.py
index a54d5a1a5..a65a0bd1d 100644
--- a/beets/mediafile.py
+++ b/beets/mediafile.py
@@ -715,10 +715,14 @@ class MediaFile(object):
     @property
     def bitrate(self):
         if self.type in ('flac', 'ape'):
-            # Simulate bitrate for lossless formats.
-            #fixme: The utility of this guess is questionable.
-            return self.mgfile.info.sample_rate * \
-                   self.mgfile.info.bits_per_sample
+            if hasattr(self.mgfile.info, 'bits_per_sample'):
+                # Simulate bitrate for lossless formats.
+                #fixme: The utility of this guess is questionable.
+                return self.mgfile.info.sample_rate * \
+                       self.mgfile.info.bits_per_sample
+            else:
+                # Old APE file format.
+                return 0
         elif self.type == 'wv':
             # Mutagen doesn't provide enough information.
             return 0
diff --git a/test/rsrc/oldape.ape b/test/rsrc/oldape.ape
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7589a7b1d
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/rsrc/oldape.ape differ
diff --git a/test/test_mediafile.py b/test/test_mediafile.py
index c6bfa3006..ce19e366f 100644
--- a/test/test_mediafile.py
+++ b/test/test_mediafile.py
@@ -63,6 +63,10 @@ class EdgeTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(f.disc, 4)
         self.assertEqual(f.disctotal, 5)
 
+    def test_old_ape_version_bitrate(self):
+        f = beets.mediafile.MediaFile(os.path.join('rsrc', 'oldape.ape'))
+        self.assertEqual(f.bitrate, 0)
+
 _sc = beets.mediafile._safe_cast
 class InvalidValueToleranceTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_packed_integer_with_extra_chars(self):