diff --git a/apps/converter/utils.py b/apps/converter/utils.py
index 5fc106a940..4653b6dc9d 100644
--- a/apps/converter/utils.py
+++ b/apps/converter/utils.py
@@ -3,7 +3,15 @@ import os
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
 from django.utils.importlib import import_module
 
-
+try:
+    from python_magic import magic
+    USE_PYTHON_MAGIC = True
+except:
+    import mimetypes
+    mimetypes.init()
+    USE_PYTHON_MAGIC = False
+    
+    
 #http://stackoverflow.com/questions/123198/how-do-i-copy-a-file-in-python
 def copyfile(source, dest, buffer_size=1024 * 1024):
     """
@@ -72,3 +80,32 @@ def load_backend():
                 raise ImproperlyConfigured(error_msg)
             else:
                 raise # If there's some other error, this must be an error in Mayan itself.
+
+
+def get_mimetype(filepath):
+    """
+    Determine a file's mimetype by calling the system's libmagic
+    library via python-magic or fallback to use python's mimetypes
+    library
+    """
+    file_mimetype = u''
+    file_mime_encoding = u''
+    
+    if USE_PYTHON_MAGIC:
+        if os.path.exists(filepath):
+            try:
+                source = open(filepath, 'r')
+                mime = magic.Magic(mime=True)
+                file_mimetype = mime.from_buffer(source.read())
+                source.seek(0)
+                mime_encoding = magic.Magic(mime_encoding=True)
+                file_mime_encoding = mime_encoding.from_buffer(source.read())
+            finally:
+                if source:
+                    source.close()
+    else:
+        path, filename = os.path.split(filepath)
+        file_mimetype, file_mime_encoding = mimetypes.guess_type(filename)
+        
+    return file_mimetype, file_mime_encoding
+