diff --git a/api client.py b/api client.py
index ab6b6b9a..633f2b8a 100644
--- a/api client.py	
+++ b/api client.py	
@@ -25,10 +25,12 @@ print 'Now that we have our address data in a nice Python data structure, let\'s
 print jsonAddresses['addresses'][0]['label']
 
 print 'Uncomment this next line to create a new random address.'
-#print api.createRandomAddress('new address label')
+addressLabel = 'new address label'.encode('base64')
+print api.createRandomAddress(addressLabel)
 
-print 'Uncomment these next three lines to create new new deterministic addresses.'
-#jsonDeterministicAddresses = api.createDeterministicAddresses('asdfasdfqwerasdf', 2, 2, 1, False)
+print 'Uncomment these next four lines to create new deterministic addresses.'
+#passphrase = 'asdfasdfqwer'.encode('base64')
+#jsonDeterministicAddresses = api.createDeterministicAddresses(passphrase, 2, 2, 1, False)
 #print jsonDeterministicAddresses
 #print json.loads(jsonDeterministicAddresses)
 
diff --git a/bitmessagemain.py b/bitmessagemain.py
index b4e4a9ab..44dd57e1 100755
--- a/bitmessagemain.py
+++ b/bitmessagemain.py
@@ -3346,6 +3346,7 @@ class MySimpleXMLRPCRequestHandler(SimpleXMLRPCRequestHandler):
                 eighteenByteRipe = False
             elif len(params) == 2:
                 label, eighteenByteRipe = params
+            label = label.decode('base64')
             apiAddressGeneratorReturnQueue.queue.clear()
             apiSignalQueue.put(('createRandomAddress',(label, eighteenByteRipe))) #params should be a twopul which equals (eighteenByteRipe, label)
             return apiAddressGeneratorReturnQueue.get()
@@ -3374,6 +3375,7 @@ class MySimpleXMLRPCRequestHandler(SimpleXMLRPCRequestHandler):
                 passphrase, numberOfAddresses, addressVersionNumber, streamNumber, eighteenByteRipe = params
             if len(passphrase) == 0:
                 return 'API Error 0001: the specified passphrase is blank.'
+            passphrase = passphrase.decode('base64')
             if addressVersionNumber == 0: #0 means "just use the proper addressVersionNumber"
                 addressVersionNumber == 2
             if addressVersionNumber != 2: