diff --git a/soundscrape/soundscrape.py b/soundscrape/soundscrape.py
index 33cf39b..4747bc9 100755
--- a/soundscrape/soundscrape.py
+++ b/soundscrape/soundscrape.py
@@ -1314,7 +1314,7 @@ def puts_safe(text):
         if sys.version_info < (3,0,0):
             puts(text)
         else:
-            puts(text.encode(sys.stdout.encoding, errors='replace').decode())
+            puts(text.encode('ascii', errors='replace').decode())
     else:
         puts(text)