diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 91f01c382..e06543b8c 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ ver 0.16 (20??/??/??)
   - flac: load external cue sheet when no internal one
   - mpg123: new decoder plugin based on libmpg123
   - sidplay: support sub-tunes
+  - sidplay: implemented songlength database
 * encoders:
   - twolame: new encoder plugin based on libtwolame
 * output:
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 681feae6c..e730c6977 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -554,12 +554,17 @@ if test x$enable_sidplay != xno; then
 	# library name triggers an autoconf bug
 	AC_CHECK_LIB(resid-builder, main,
 		[found_sidplay=yes], [found_sidplay=no])
+
+	if test x$found_sidplay = xyes; then
+		AC_HAVE_LIBRARY(sidutils,, [found_sidplay=no])
+	fi
+
 	MPD_AUTO_RESULT(sidplay, [sidplay decoder plugin],
-		[libresid-builder not found])
+		[libresid-builder or libsidutils not found])
 fi
 
 if test x$enable_sidplay = xyes; then
-	AC_SUBST(SIDPLAY_LIBS,"-lsidplay2 -lresid-builder")
+	AC_SUBST(SIDPLAY_LIBS,"-lsidplay2 -lresid-builder -lsidutils")
 	AC_SUBST(SIDPLAY_CFLAGS,)
 
 	AC_DEFINE(ENABLE_SIDPLAY, 1, [Define for libsidplay2 support])
diff --git a/doc/mpdconf.example b/doc/mpdconf.example
index 4e3b19a5a..8ce3a1b9f 100644
--- a/doc/mpdconf.example
+++ b/doc/mpdconf.example
@@ -363,3 +363,25 @@ input {
 #id3v1_encoding			"ISO-8859-1"
 #
 ###############################################################################
+
+
+# SIDPlay decoder #############################################################
+#
+# songlength_database:
+#  Location of your songlengths file, as distributed with the HVSC.
+#  The sidplay plugin checks this for matching MD5 fingerprints.
+#  See http://www.c64.org/HVSC/DOCUMENTS/Songlengths.faq
+#
+# default_songlength:
+#  This is the default playing time in seconds for songs not in the
+#  songlength database, or in case you're not using a database.
+#  A value of 0 means play indefinitely.
+#
+#decoder {
+#	plugin			"sidplay"
+#	songlength_database	"/media/C64Music/DOCUMENTS/Songlengths.txt"
+#	default_songlength	"120"
+#}
+#
+###############################################################################
+
diff --git a/src/decoder/sidplay_plugin.cxx b/src/decoder/sidplay_plugin.cxx
index ab67a8b81..f490586ac 100644
--- a/src/decoder/sidplay_plugin.cxx
+++ b/src/decoder/sidplay_plugin.cxx
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ extern "C" {
 
 #include <sidplay/sidplay2.h>
 #include <sidplay/builders/resid.h>
+#include <sidplay/utils/SidTuneMod.h>
 
 #undef G_LOG_DOMAIN
 #define G_LOG_DOMAIN "sidplay"
@@ -34,12 +35,48 @@ extern "C" {
 #define SUBTUNE_PREFIX "tune_"
 
 static GPatternSpec *path_with_subtune;
+static const char *songlength_file;
+static GKeyFile *songlength_database;
 
 static bool all_files_are_containers;
+static unsigned default_songlength;
 
 static bool
 sidplay_init(const struct config_param *param)
 {
+	GError *err=NULL;
+	gchar *songlen_data;
+	gsize songlen_data_size;
+
+	/* read the songlengths database file */
+	songlength_file=config_get_block_string(param,
+		"songlength_database", NULL);
+	if(songlength_file) {
+		if(g_file_get_contents(songlength_file, &songlen_data, &songlen_data_size, NULL)) {
+			/* replace any ; comment characters with # */
+			for(int i=0; i<songlen_data_size; i++)
+				if(songlen_data[i]==';') songlen_data[i]='#';
+
+			songlength_database=g_key_file_new();
+			if(!g_key_file_load_from_data(songlength_database,
+				songlen_data, songlen_data_size,
+				G_KEY_FILE_NONE, &err)) {
+					g_warning("unable to parse songlengths file %s: %s",
+						songlength_file, err->message);
+					g_key_file_free(songlength_database);
+					songlength_database=NULL;
+				}
+			g_key_file_set_list_separator(songlength_database, ' ');
+			g_free(songlen_data);
+		} else {
+			g_warning("unable to read songlengths file %s: %s",
+				songlength_file, err->message);
+		}
+	}
+
+	default_songlength=config_get_block_unsigned(param,
+		"default_songlength", 0);
+
 	all_files_are_containers=config_get_block_bool(param,
 		"all_files_are_containers", true);
 
@@ -53,6 +90,9 @@ void
 sidplay_finish()
 {
 	g_pattern_spec_free(path_with_subtune);
+
+	if(songlength_database)
+		g_key_file_free(songlength_database);
 }
 
 /**
@@ -97,6 +137,49 @@ get_song_num(const char *path_fs)
 		return 1;
 }
 
+/* get the song length in seconds */
+static int
+get_song_length(const char *path_fs)
+{
+	if (songlength_database == NULL)
+		return -1;
+
+	gchar *sid_file=get_container_name(path_fs);
+	SidTuneMod tune(sid_file);
+	g_free(sid_file);
+	if(!tune) {
+		g_warning("failed to load file for calculating md5 sum");
+		return -1;
+	}
+	char md5sum[SIDTUNE_MD5_LENGTH+1];
+	tune.createMD5(md5sum);
+
+	int song_num=get_song_num(path_fs);
+
+	gsize num_items;
+	gchar **values=g_key_file_get_string_list(songlength_database,
+		"Database", md5sum, &num_items, NULL);
+	if(!values || song_num>num_items) {
+		g_strfreev(values);
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	int minutes=strtol(values[song_num-1], NULL, 10);
+	if(errno==EINVAL) minutes=0;
+
+	int seconds;
+	char *ptr=strchr(values[song_num-1], ':');
+	if(ptr) {
+		seconds=strtol(ptr+1, NULL, 10);
+		if(errno==EINVAL) seconds=0;
+	} else
+		seconds=0;
+
+	g_strfreev(values);
+
+	return (minutes*60)+seconds;
+}
+
 static void
 sidplay_file_decode(struct decoder *decoder, const char *path_fs)
 {
@@ -232,6 +315,10 @@ sidplay_tag_dup(const char *path_fs)
 	tag_add_item(tag, TAG_ITEM_TRACK, track);
 	g_free(track);
 
+	/* time */
+	int song_len=get_song_length(path_fs);
+	if(song_len!=-1) tag->time=song_len;
+
 	return tag;
 }