diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4686260e0..edf51c6e8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 import os.path
 import warnings
 import sys
+from youtube_dl.version import __version__
 
 try:
     from setuptools import setup