diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 45ce90534..0dc4bf98c 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -62,6 +62,17 @@ if(NOT HAVE_CXX_ATOMICS_WITHOUT_LIB)
   endif()
 endif()
 
+# we default to using a bundled version of taglib because the latest release
+# is from 2016, and the upstream git repo is hundreds of commits ahead and
+# has a number of important bugfixes.
+if (NOT DEFINED ENABLE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB)
+  message(STATUS "[build] ENABLE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB not defined, setting to 'true'")
+  set(ENABLE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB "true")
+else()
+  message(STATUS "[build] ENABLE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB specified as '${ENABLE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB}'")
+endif()
+
+
 message(STATUS "[build] link libraries are: ${musikcube_LINK_LIBS}")
 
 include_directories (
@@ -95,11 +106,6 @@ elseif(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME MATCHES "FreeBSD" OR CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME MATCHES "OpenBSD
   add_definitions (-DNO_NCURSESW)
 endif()
 
-# we use a bundled version of taglib because the latest release is from 2016,
-# and the upstream git repo is hundreds of commits ahead and has a number of
-# important bugfixes.
-set(USE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB "true")
-
 add_subdirectory(src/musikcore)
 add_subdirectory(src/core_c_demo)
 add_subdirectory(src/musikcube)
@@ -305,7 +311,7 @@ if (GENERATE_DEB MATCHES "1")
       set(DEPENDENCIES "${DEPENDENCIES}, libavcodec-extra, libavutil${DEB_AVUTIL_VERSION}, libavformat${DEB_AVFORMAT_VERSION}, libswresample${DEB_SWRESAMPLE_VERSION}")
     endif()
 
-    if (NOT ${USE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB} MATCHES "true")
+    if (${ENABLE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB} MATCHES "false")
       set(DEPENDENCIES "${DEPENDENCIES}, libtag1v5")
     endif()
 
diff --git a/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/CMakeLists.txt b/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/CMakeLists.txt
index 2f6d5da3d..389869d99 100644
--- a/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -11,26 +11,25 @@ else()
 endif()
 
 add_library(taglibreader SHARED ${taglibreader_SOURCES})
+  
+if (NOT ${ENABLE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB} MATCHES "false")
+  message(STATUS "[taglibmetadatareader] using bundled taglib = true")
 
-message(STATUS "[taglibmetadatareader] using bundled taglib = ${USE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB}")
+  include(ExternalProject)
 
-if (${USE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB} MATCHES "true")
-  if (${USE_BUNDLED_TAGLIB} MATCHES "true")
-    include(ExternalProject)
+  ExternalProject_Add(taglib
+    SOURCE_DIR "${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/taglib-1.11"
+    BUILD_IN_SOURCE 0
+    DOWNLOAD_COMMAND ""
+    UPDATE_COMMAND ""
+    CMAKE_ARGS "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/taglib-1.11/stage/"
+    INSTALL_COMMAND make install)
 
-    ExternalProject_Add(taglib
-      SOURCE_DIR "${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/taglib-1.11"
-      BUILD_IN_SOURCE 0
-      DOWNLOAD_COMMAND ""
-      UPDATE_COMMAND ""
-      CMAKE_ARGS "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/taglib-1.11/stage/"
-      INSTALL_COMMAND make install)
-
-    include_directories("${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/taglib-1.11/stage/include")
-  endif()
+  include_directories("${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/taglib-1.11/stage/include")
   add_dependencies(taglibreader taglib)
   target_link_libraries(taglibreader ${BOOST_LINK_LIBS} "${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/taglib-1.11/stage/lib/libtag.a" z)
   message(STATUS "[taglibmetadatareader] using ${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/taglib-1.11/stage/lib/libtag.a")
 else()
+  message(STATUS "[taglibmetadatareader] using bundled taglib = false")
   target_link_libraries(taglibreader ${BOOST_LINK_LIBS} tag z)
 endif()