diff --git a/beets/autotag/mb.py b/beets/autotag/mb.py
index ea8ef24da7..ee32a01413 100644
--- a/beets/autotag/mb.py
+++ b/beets/autotag/mb.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ def get_message(self):
 RELEASE_INCLUDES = ['artists', 'media', 'recordings', 'release-groups',
                     'labels', 'artist-credits', 'aliases',
                     'recording-level-rels', 'work-rels',
-                    'work-level-rels', 'artist-rels']
+                    'work-level-rels', 'artist-rels', 'genres']
 TRACK_INCLUDES = ['artists', 'aliases']
 if 'work-level-rels' in musicbrainzngs.VALID_INCLUDES['recording']:
     TRACK_INCLUDES += ['work-level-rels', 'artist-rels']
@@ -415,6 +415,9 @@ def album_info(release):
         first_medium = release['medium-list'][0]
         info.media = first_medium.get('format')
 
+    if release.get('genre-list'):
+        info.genre = ';'.join(g['name'] for g in release['genre-list'])
+
     info.decode()
     return info
 
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index bc03d772e1..19b677be05 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -147,6 +147,8 @@ New features:
   be deleted after importing.
   Thanks to :user:`logan-arens`.
   :bug:`2947`
+* Use musicbrainz genre tag api to get genre information.
+  Thanks to :user:`aereaux`.
 
 Fixes: