diff --git a/docs/changes.rst b/docs/changes.rst
index 8d614f1d..b5217200 100644
--- a/docs/changes.rst
+++ b/docs/changes.rst
@@ -8,6 +8,11 @@ This change log is used to track all major changes to Mopidy.
 v0.11.0 (in development)
 ========================
 
+**Spotify backend**
+
+- Add :attr:`mopidy.settings.SPOTIFY_TIMEOUT` setting which allows you to
+  control how long we should wait before giving up on Spotify searches, etc.
+
 **MPD frontend**
 
 - Add support for the ``findadd`` command.
diff --git a/mopidy/settings.py b/mopidy/settings.py
index 0a71ccfa..0a272035 100644
--- a/mopidy/settings.py
+++ b/mopidy/settings.py
@@ -282,3 +282,12 @@ SPOTIFY_PROXY_USERNAME = None
 #:
 #:     SPOTIFY_PROXY_PASSWORD = None
 SPOTIFY_PROXY_PASSWORD = None
+
+#: Max number of seconds to wait for Spotify operations to complete.
+#:
+#: Used by :mod:`mopidy.backends.spotify`
+#:
+#: Default::
+#:
+#:     SPOTIFY_TIMEOUT = 10
+SPOTIFY_TIMEOUT = 10