diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 8a02ab7981de84bbe3f819bcdc54e570f7df5bdb..779f7737085dc2ac4b3789f156d639da5fd21cf8 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,8 +1,36 @@
 MUSIC NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
-Copyright (C) 2009, 2010, 2019 INCF
+Copyright (C) 2009, 2010, 2019, 2020, 2021 INCF
 
 Please send MUSIC bug reports to music-bugs@incf.org.
 
+
+Changes in 1.1.17:
+
+* music library
+
+** Support for Python3
+
+Python support was updated to support Python3.
+
+** Fixes to the postponed setup mechanism
+
+The PyNN/MUSIC interface depends on a postponed setup mechanism which
+now works.
+
+** Several bugfixes throughout
+
+* music utility
+
+** New manpages
+
+New manpages were created for contsink and messagesource.
+
+* python support
+
+** Call runtime.finalize()
+
+Call runtime.finalize() in python example utilities.
+
 
 Changes in 1.1.16:
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 5f4639ffa887077536c19cb5aaa9c5b7ecc90c03..e67be51b9e90bf31de7a74fd892fd4df7f18da2a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 dnl Process this file with autoconf to produce configure.
-AC_INIT(music, 1.1.16)
+AC_INIT(music, 1.1.17)
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
 AM_CONFIG_HEADER([config.h])
 AM_MAINTAINER_MODE