diff --git a/VERSION.sxmp b/VERSION.sxmp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8ea2ddf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION.sxmp
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+0.5.0
+
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0e725f4..035f93f 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 dnl Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
 
-AC_INIT(libsxmp, 0.5.0)
+AC_INIT(libsxmp, m4_esyscmd([tr -d '\n' < VERSION.sxmp]))
 
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])