diff --git a/beets/ui/__init__.py b/beets/ui/__init__.py
index 2e61611d9f..82205e0e07 100644
--- a/beets/ui/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/ui/__init__.py
@@ -689,6 +689,8 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
                         help='path to configuration file')
         self.add_option('-h', '--help', dest='help', action='store_true',
                         help='how this help message and exit')
+        self.add_option('--version', dest='version', action='store_true',
+                        help=optparse.SUPPRESS_HELP)
 
         # Our root parser needs to stop on the first unrecognized argument.
         self.disable_interspersed_args()
@@ -948,9 +950,14 @@ def _raw_main(args, lib=None):
     subcommands, plugins, lib = _setup(options, lib)
 
     parser.add_subcommand(*subcommands)
-    subcommand, suboptions, subargs = parser.parse_subcommand(subargs)
 
-    subcommand.func(lib, suboptions, subargs)
+    if options.version:
+        from beets.ui import commands
+        commands.version_cmd.func(lib, None, None)
+    else:
+        subcommand, suboptions, subargs = parser.parse_subcommand(subargs)
+        subcommand.func(lib, suboptions, subargs)
+
     plugins.send('cli_exit', lib=lib)
 
 
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index db19d72062..04ecfea24d 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ Fixes:
 * :doc:`/plugins/play`: Add a ``relative_to`` config option. Thanks to
   BrainDamage.
 * Fix a crash when a MusicBrainz release has zero tracks.
+* The ``--version`` flag now works as an alias for the ``version`` command.
 
 .. _discogs_client: https://github.com/discogs/discogs_client