diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index acde4acbd..8fae08362 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -248,15 +248,7 @@ if boost_dep.version() == '1.67'
   warning('Your Boost version 1.67 is known to be buggy, and the MPD build will fail. Please upgrade to Boost 1.68 or later.')
 endif
 
-fmt_dep = dependency('fmt', version: '>= 7', fallback: ['fmt', 'fmt_dep'])
-
-if compiler.get_id() == 'clang' and compiler.version().version_compare('<15')
-  fmt_dep = declare_dependency(
-    dependencies: fmt_dep,
-    # suppress bogus clang 14 warning (the version in Android NDK r25b)
-    compile_args: ['-Wno-unused-local-typedef'],
-  )
-endif
+subdir('src/lib/fmt')
 
 log = static_library(
   'log',
diff --git a/src/lib/fmt/meson.build b/src/lib/fmt/meson.build
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..66007743e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/fmt/meson.build
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+libfmt = dependency('fmt', version: '>= 7', fallback: ['fmt', 'fmt_dep'])
+
+if compiler.get_id() == 'clang' and compiler.version().version_compare('<15')
+  libfmt = declare_dependency(
+    dependencies: libfmt,
+    # suppress bogus clang 14 warning (the version in Android NDK r25b)
+    compile_args: ['-Wno-unused-local-typedef'],
+  )
+endif
+
+fmt_dep = declare_dependency(
+  dependencies: libfmt,
+)