diff --git a/docs/changes.rst b/docs/changes.rst
index 6d7117c6..b9df87df 100644
--- a/docs/changes.rst
+++ b/docs/changes.rst
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ No description yet.
 
 - Improve :option:`--list-settings` output. (Fixes: :issue:`91`)
 
+- Replace not decodable characters returned from Spotify instead of throwing an
+  exception, as we won't try to figure out the encoding of non-UTF-8-data.
+
 
 v0.4.1 (2011-05-06)
 ===================
diff --git a/mopidy/backends/spotify/translator.py b/mopidy/backends/spotify/translator.py
index 15aa59ac..21abdf78 100644
--- a/mopidy/backends/spotify/translator.py
+++ b/mopidy/backends/spotify/translator.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ class SpotifyTranslator(object):
             return Artist(name=u'[loading...]')
         return Artist(
             uri=str(Link.from_artist(spotify_artist)),
-            name=spotify_artist.name().decode(ENCODING),
+            name=spotify_artist.name().decode(ENCODING, 'replace'),
         )
 
     @classmethod
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ class SpotifyTranslator(object):
         if spotify_album is None or not spotify_album.is_loaded():
             return Album(name=u'[loading...]')
         # TODO pyspotify got much more data on albums than this
-        return Album(name=spotify_album.name().decode(ENCODING))
+        return Album(name=spotify_album.name().decode(ENCODING, 'replace'))
 
     @classmethod
     def to_mopidy_track(cls, spotify_track):
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ class SpotifyTranslator(object):
             date = None
         return Track(
             uri=uri,
-            name=spotify_track.name().decode(ENCODING),
+            name=spotify_track.name().decode(ENCODING, 'replace'),
             artists=[cls.to_mopidy_artist(a) for a in spotify_track.artists()],
             album=cls.to_mopidy_album(spotify_track.album()),
             track_no=spotify_track.index(),
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ class SpotifyTranslator(object):
         try:
             return Playlist(
                 uri=str(Link.from_playlist(spotify_playlist)),
-                name=spotify_playlist.name().decode(ENCODING),
+                name=spotify_playlist.name().decode(ENCODING, 'replace'),
                 # FIXME if check on link is a hackish workaround for is_local
                 tracks=[cls.to_mopidy_track(t) for t in spotify_playlist
                     if str(Link.from_track(t, 0))],