diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d971a63a2..ded3d8e00 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -18,8 +18,11 @@ shell-check:
 VERSION:
 	tools/version.sh
 
+bump-python-version: VERSION
+	tools/bump-python-version.sh
+
 .PHONY: tarball
-tarball: VERSION
+tarball: VERSION bump-python-version
 	$(MAKE) -C legacy build
 	cd .. && tar -czf libretime-$(shell cat VERSION | tr -d [:blank:]).tar.gz \
 		--owner=root --group=root \
diff --git a/tools/bump-python-version.sh b/tools/bump-python-version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..763fb0423
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/bump-python-version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Bump the version in the setup.py files.
+
+set -u
+
+error() {
+  echo >&2 "error: $*"
+  exit 1
+}
+
+command -v sed > /dev/null || error "sed command not found!"
+
+version="$(cat VERSION)"
+
+for setup_path in */setup.py; do
+  sed --in-place \
+    "s/version=\".*\",/version=\"$version\",/" \
+    "$setup_path"  ||
+    error "could not bump version for $setup_path!"
+done