diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e68eb0ae1..88867112e 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -67,6 +67,13 @@ include_directories (
   "${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/3rdparty/include"
   "${musikcube_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugins/taglib_plugin/taglib-1.11/stage/include")
 
+# ensure the binaries can find libmusikcore.so, which lives in the
+# same directory.
+if (NOT CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME MATCHES "Darwin")
+  set(CMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH "$ORIGIN")
+  set(CMAKE_BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_RPATH TRUE)
+endif()
+
 # "/usr/local" doesn't seem to be included by default on macOS 10.12+
 # "/opt/local" is the default installation location for MacPorts
 if (CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME MATCHES "Darwin" OR CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME MATCHES "FreeBSD")
diff --git a/src/musikcubed/CMakeLists.txt b/src/musikcubed/CMakeLists.txt
index 2b2e7bd3b..9d75339cd 100644
--- a/src/musikcubed/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/musikcubed/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -7,10 +7,7 @@ if (NOT DEFINED musikcube_INSTALL_DIR)
 	set(musikcube_INSTALL_DIR ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX})
 endif()
 
-configure_file("musikcubed.in" "musikcubed" @ONLY)
-
 add_executable(musikcubed ${DAEMON_SRCS})
-set_target_properties(musikcubed PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS "-Wl,-rpath,./")
 
 if (${LINK_STATICALLY} MATCHES "true")
     find_library(EVLIB NAMES libev.a ev)