diff --git a/beets/ui/__init__.py b/beets/ui/__init__.py
index 1540a2ee0..8cf6cbbf6 100644
--- a/beets/ui/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/ui/__init__.py
@@ -875,7 +875,7 @@ class CommonOptionsParser(optparse.OptionParser):
         By default this affects both items and albums. If add_album_option()
         is used then the target will be autodetected.
 
-        Sets the format property to u'$path' on the options extracted from the
+        Sets the format property to '$path' on the options extracted from the
         CLI.
         """
         path = optparse.Option(*flags, nargs=0, action='callback',
diff --git a/beetsplug/lyrics.py b/beetsplug/lyrics.py
index 8a9896bc3..f13db7ad0 100644
--- a/beetsplug/lyrics.py
+++ b/beetsplug/lyrics.py
@@ -94,9 +94,9 @@ Artist index:
 # The content for the base conf.py generated.
 REST_CONF_TEMPLATE = '''# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 master_doc = 'index'
-project = u'Lyrics'
-copyright = u'none'
-author = u'Various Authors'
+project = 'Lyrics'
+copyright = 'none'
+author = 'Various Authors'
 latex_documents = [
     (master_doc, 'Lyrics.tex', project,
      author, 'manual'),
diff --git a/extra/release.py b/extra/release.py
index 0309f0bb0..2a98e06e8 100755
--- a/extra/release.py
+++ b/extra/release.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ VERSION_LOCS = [
         [
             (
                 r'__version__\s*=\s*u[\'"]([0-9\.]+)[\'"]',
-                "__version__ = u'{version}'",
+                "__version__ = '{version}'",
             )
         ]
     ),