diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index cfae6d8fc..4742ef709 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 [metadata]
 name = mne-bids
-version = attr: mne_bids.__version__
 url = https://github.com/mne-tools/mne-bids
 author = mne-bids developers
 maintainer = Mainak Jas
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b62f98a40..b096e7fbf 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -8,7 +8,19 @@
 # This enables setuptools to install wheel on-the-fly
 SETUP_REQUIRES += ["wheel"] if "bdist_wheel" in sys.argv else []
 
+version = None
+with open('mne_bids/__init__.py', 'r') as fid:
+    for line in fid:
+        line = line.strip()
+        if line.startswith('__version__ = '):
+            version = line.split(' = ')[1].split('#')[0].strip('\'')
+            break
+if version is None:
+    raise RuntimeError('Could not determine version')
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     setup(
+        version=version,
         setup_requires=SETUP_REQUIRES,
     )