diff --git a/docs/api/httpclient.rst b/docs/api/httpclient.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..85e258c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/api/httpclient.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+.. _httpclient-helper:
+
+************************************************
+:mod:`mopidy.httpclient` --- HTTP Client helpers
+************************************************
+
+.. automodule:: mopidy.httpclient
+    :synopsis: HTTP Client helpers for Mopidy its Extensions.
+    :members:
diff --git a/docs/api/index.rst b/docs/api/index.rst
index 3a79af5d..d4bd2f61 100644
--- a/docs/api/index.rst
+++ b/docs/api/index.rst
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ Utilities
 
 .. toctree::
 
-    config
     commands
+    config
+    httpclient
     zeroconf
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index d010ba5f..bb009eb2 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -44,6 +44,12 @@ Models
   reuse instances. For the test data set this was developed against, a library
   of ~14000 tracks, went from needing ~75MB to ~17MB. (Fixes: :issue:`348`)
 
+Utils
+-----
+
+- Add :func:`mopidy.httpclient.format_proxy` and
+  :func:`mopidy.httpclient.format_user_agent`. (Part of: :issue:`1156`)
+
 Internal changes
 ----------------
 
diff --git a/mopidy/audio/utils.py b/mopidy/audio/utils.py
index 1a8bf6a7..3b9ea30f 100644
--- a/mopidy/audio/utils.py
+++ b/mopidy/audio/utils.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import pygst
 pygst.require('0.10')
 import gst  # noqa
 
-from mopidy import compat
+from mopidy import compat, httpclient
 from mopidy.models import Album, Artist, Track
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -142,11 +142,7 @@ def setup_proxy(element, config):
     if not hasattr(element.props, 'proxy') or not config.get('hostname'):
         return
 
-    proxy = "%s://%s:%d" % (config.get('scheme', 'http'),
-                            config.get('hostname'),
-                            config.get('port', 80))
-
-    element.set_property('proxy', proxy)
+    element.set_property('proxy', httpclient.format_proxy(config, auth=False))
     element.set_property('proxy-id', config.get('username'))
     element.set_property('proxy-pw', config.get('password'))
 
diff --git a/mopidy/httpclient.py b/mopidy/httpclient.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d0b3cb4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mopidy/httpclient.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+import platform
+
+import mopidy
+
+"Helpers for configuring HTTP clients used in Mopidy extensions."
+
+
+def format_proxy(proxy_config, auth=True):
+    """Convert a Mopidy proxy config to the commonly used proxy string format.
+
+    Outputs ``scheme://host:port``, ``scheme://user:pass@host:port`` or
+    :class:`None` depending on the proxy config provided.
+
+    You can also opt out of getting the basic auth by setting ``auth`` to
+    :type:`False`.
+    """
+    if not proxy_config.get('hostname'):
+        return None
+
+    port = proxy_config.get('port', 80)
+    if port < 0:
+        port = 80
+
+    if proxy_config.get('username') and proxy_config.get('password') and auth:
+        template = '{scheme}://{username}:{password}@{hostname}:{port}'
+    else:
+        template = '{scheme}://{hostname}:{port}'
+
+    return template.format(scheme=proxy_config.get('scheme') or 'http',
+                           username=proxy_config.get('username'),
+                           password=proxy_config.get('password'),
+                           hostname=proxy_config['hostname'], port=port)
+
+
+def format_user_agent(name=None):
+    """Construct a User-Agent suitable for use in client code.
+
+    This will identify use by the provided name (which should be
+    ``dist_name/version``), Mopidy version and Python version.
+    """
+    parts = ['Mopidy/%s' % (mopidy.__version__),
+             '%s/%s' % (platform.python_implementation(),
+                        platform.python_version())]
+    if name:
+        parts.insert(0, name)
+    return ' '.join(parts)
diff --git a/tests/test_httpclient.py b/tests/test_httpclient.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..63591f80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_httpclient.py
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+import re
+
+import pytest
+
+from mopidy import httpclient
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("config,expected", [
+    ({}, None),
+    ({'hostname': 'proxy.lan'}, 'http://proxy.lan:80'),
+    ({'scheme': None, 'hostname': 'proxy.lan'}, 'http://proxy.lan:80'),
+    ({'scheme': 'https', 'hostname': 'proxy.lan'}, 'https://proxy.lan:80'),
+    ({'username': 'user', 'hostname': 'proxy.lan'}, 'http://proxy.lan:80'),
+    ({'password': 'pass', 'hostname': 'proxy.lan'}, 'http://proxy.lan:80'),
+    ({'hostname': 'proxy.lan', 'port': 8080}, 'http://proxy.lan:8080'),
+    ({'hostname': 'proxy.lan', 'port': -1}, 'http://proxy.lan:80'),
+    ({'username': 'user', 'password': 'pass', 'hostname': 'proxy.lan'},
+     'http://user:pass@proxy.lan:80'),
+])
+def test_format_proxy(config, expected):
+    assert httpclient.format_proxy(config) == expected
+
+
+def test_format_proxy_without_auth():
+    config = {'username': 'user', 'password': 'pass', 'hostname': 'proxy.lan'}
+    formated_proxy = httpclient.format_proxy(config, auth=False)
+    assert formated_proxy == 'http://proxy.lan:80'
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("name,expected", [
+    (None, r'^Mopidy/[^ ]+ CPython|/[^ ]+$'),
+    ('Foo', r'^Foo Mopidy/[^ ]+ CPython|/[^ ]+$'),
+    ('Foo/1.2.3', r'^Foo/1.2.3 Mopidy/[^ ]+ CPython|/[^ ]+$'),
+])
+def test_format_user_agent(name, expected):
+    assert re.match(expected, httpclient.format_user_agent(name))