diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 85fee6ae6..875e19829 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ class sdist(_sdist):
     sub_commands = [('compile_translations', None)] + _sdist.sub_commands
 
     def run(self):
-        print "creating VERSION file"
+        print("creating VERSION file")
         if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
             os.remove('VERSION')
         version = get_version()
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ class sdist(_sdist):
         version_file.write(version)
         version_file.close()
         _sdist.run(self)
-        print "removing VERSION file"
+        print("removing VERSION file")
         if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
             os.remove('VERSION')
 
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ def get_version():
         else:
             result = '0.0.0-%s' % len(subprocess.check_output(
                 ['git', 'rev-list', 'HEAD']).splitlines())
-        return result.replace('-', '.').replace('.g', '+g')
+        return result.decode('utf-8').replace('-', '.').replace('.g', '+g')
     return '0.0.0'