diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
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new mode 100755
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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diff --git a/core/__init__.py b/core/__init__.py
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diff --git a/core/metadata.py b/core/metadata.py
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diff --git a/core/misc.py b/core/misc.py
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diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
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diff --git a/spotdl.py b/spotdl.py
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index b9eed58..79e7fec
--- a/spotdl.py
+++ b/spotdl.py
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ def generate_YouTube_URL(raw_song):
     # generate direct search YouTube URL
     searchURL = misc.generate_search_URL(song)
     item = urllib2.urlopen(searchURL).read()
+    item = unicode(item, 'utf-8')
     items_parse = BeautifulSoup(item, "html.parser")
     check = 1
     if args.manual: