diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 67d2999c..951597d2 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-ncmpcpp-0.8.1 (????-??-??)
+ncmpcpp-0.8.1 (2017-10-11)
 * Setting 'colors_enabled' to 'no' no longer results in a crash.
 * Using '--quiet' command line argument no longer results in a crash.
 * If songs in media library have no track numbers, sort them by their display format.
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 29985f21..9fb82722 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-AC_INIT([ncmpcpp], [0.8.1_dev])
+AC_INIT([ncmpcpp], [0.8.1])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([configure.ac])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS(config.h)
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([subdir-objects])