diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index dcd65827c..b94e60d97 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@
 * Resuming is automatically disabled when the importer is in quiet (-q)
   mode. Progress is still saved, however, and the -q flag (above) can
   be used to force resuming.
+* The BEETSCONFIG environment variable can now be used to specify the
+  location of the config file that is at ~/.beetsconfig by default.
 * 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.
diff --git a/beets/ui/__init__.py b/beets/ui/__init__.py
index d661802d1..62b71cb8b 100644
--- a/beets/ui/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/ui/__init__.py
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ from beets import library
 from beets import plugins
 
 # Constants.
-CONFIG_FILE = os.path.expanduser('~/.beetsconfig')
+CONFIG_PATH_VAR = 'BEETSCONFIG'
+DEFAULT_CONFIG_FILE = os.path.expanduser('~/.beetsconfig')
 STATE_FILE = os.path.expanduser('~/.beetsstate')
 DEFAULT_LIBRARY = '~/.beetsmusic.blb'
 DEFAULT_DIRECTORY = '~/Music'
@@ -405,9 +406,12 @@ def main(args=None, configfh=None):
     # Read defaults from config file.
     config = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
     if configfh:
-        config.readfp(configfh)
+        pass
+    elif CONFIG_PATH_VAR in os.environ:
+        configfh = open(os.path.expanduser(os.environ[CONFIG_PATH_VAR]))
     else:
-        config.read(CONFIG_FILE)
+        configfh = open(DEFAULT_CONFIG_FILE)
+    config.readfp(configfh)
 
     # Add plugin paths.
     plugpaths = config_val(config, 'beets', 'pluginpath', '')