diff --git a/whisper/__init__.py b/whisper/__init__.py
index e210718f3..091565741 100644
--- a/whisper/__init__.py
+++ b/whisper/__init__.py
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@
     "turbo": b"ABzY8j^C+e0{>%RARaKHP%t(lGR*)0g!tONPyhe`",
 }
 
+ffmpeg_path: str = "ffmpeg"
+
 
 def _download(url: str, root: str, in_memory: bool) -> Union[bytes, str]:
     os.makedirs(root, exist_ok=True)
diff --git a/whisper/audio.py b/whisper/audio.py
index 826250f37..426306769 100644
--- a/whisper/audio.py
+++ b/whisper/audio.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import torch
 import torch.nn.functional as F
 
+import whisper
 from .utils import exact_div
 
 # hard-coded audio hyperparameters
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ def load_audio(file: str, sr: int = SAMPLE_RATE):
     # and resampling as necessary.  Requires the ffmpeg CLI in PATH.
     # fmt: off
     cmd = [
-        "ffmpeg",
+        whisper.ffmpeg_path,
         "-nostdin",
         "-threads", "0",
         "-i", file,