diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 3f03ceae0f68057a89fbba74f950fc7174b25252..e43c31e9c2a7fb1722e27f61fdf45f34b407b104 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-ltfatpy:1.0.1
+ltfatpy:1.0.3
 ltfat:2.1.0
diff --git a/ltfatpy/__init__.py b/ltfatpy/__init__.py
index 961a61e73ea4cd296f3eba5961ef748468bb93a5..d858bf1fbbadf1af949eec03de82e2578e8ba67b 100644
--- a/ltfatpy/__init__.py
+++ b/ltfatpy/__init__.py
@@ -117,4 +117,4 @@ __all__ = ["arg_firwin", "assert_groworder", "assert_sigreshape_post",
            "long2fir", "normalize", "rms", "thresh", "lcm", "postpad"]
 
 
-__version__ = "1.0.1"
+__version__ = "1.0.3"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 009e88188cee98560765e688de934e2ac41e4ab0..c9cc9807699ab174c331ad20f4f6a87dfc9fb5de 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -50,12 +50,12 @@ def get_version():
 def set_version(ltfat_dir, VERSION):
     filename = os.path.join(ltfat_dir, '__init__.py')
     buf = ""
-    for line in open(filename, encoding="utf-8"):
-        if not line.startswith("__version__ ="):
-            buf += line
-    f = open(filename, "w", encoding="utf-8")
-    f.write(buf)
-    f.write('__version__ = "%s"\n' % VERSION)
+    for line in open(filename, "rb"):
+        if not line.decode("utf8").startswith("__version__ ="):
+            buf += line.decode("utf8")
+    f = open(filename, "wb")
+    f.write(buf.encode("utf8"))
+    f.write(('__version__ = "%s"\n' % VERSION).encode("utf8"))
 
 
 #################