diff --git a/etc/systemd/system/pandora-encoding.service b/etc/systemd/system/pandora-encoding.service
index f56f0eb2..8d5e3bda 100644
--- a/etc/systemd/system/pandora-encoding.service
+++ b/etc/systemd/system/pandora-encoding.service
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ Restart=always
 User=pandora
 Group=pandora
 PIDFile=/run/pandora/encoding.pid
-WorkingDirectory=/srv/pandora/pandora
-ExecStart=/srv/pandora/bin/python /srv/pandora/pandora/manage.py \
-    celery worker \
+WorkingDirectory=/srv/pandora
+ExecStart=/srv/pandora/bin/celery \
+    -A pandora worker \
     -Q encoding -n pandora-encoding \
     --pidfile /run/pandora/encoding.pid \
     --maxtasksperchild 500 \
diff --git a/etc/systemd/system/pandora-tasks.service b/etc/systemd/system/pandora-tasks.service
index 5972e8b3..277a0072 100644
--- a/etc/systemd/system/pandora-tasks.service
+++ b/etc/systemd/system/pandora-tasks.service
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ User=pandora
 Group=pandora
 PIDFile=/run/pandora/tasks.pid
 WorkingDirectory=/srv/pandora/pandora
-ExecStart=/srv/pandora/bin/python /srv/pandora/pandora/manage.py \
-    celery worker \
+ExecStart=/srv/pandora/bin/celery \
+    -A pandora worker \
     -Q default,celery -n pandora-default \
     --pidfile /run/pandora/tasks.pid \
     --maxtasksperchild 1000 \
diff --git a/pandora/celery.py b/pandora/celery.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f53044cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pandora/celery.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+import os
+
+from celery import Celery
+
+root_dir = os.path.normpath(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)))
+os.chdir(root_dir)
+
+# set the default Django settings module for the 'celery' program.
+os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'settings')
+
+app = Celery('pandora')
+
+# Using a string here means the worker doesn't have to serialize
+# the configuration object to child processes.
+# - namespace='CELERY' means all celery-related configuration keys
+#   should have a `CELERY_` prefix.
+app.config_from_object('django.conf:settings', namespace='CELERY')
+
+# Load task modules from all registered Django app configs.
+app.autodiscover_tasks()
diff --git a/pandora/settings.py b/pandora/settings.py
index d654f948..72a48859 100644
--- a/pandora/settings.py
+++ b/pandora/settings.py
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ DATABASES = {
 }
 
 #rabbitmq connection settings
-CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND = 'database'
+CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND = 'django-db'
 CELERY_TASK_SERIALIZER = 'json'
 CELERY_RESULT_SERIALIZER = 'json'
 CELERY_ACCEPT_CONTENT = ['json']
@@ -297,3 +297,8 @@ ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']
 SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')
 
 DATA_UPLOAD_MAX_MEMORY_SIZE = 32 * 1024 * 1024
+try:
+    CELERY_BROKER_URL
+except NameError:
+    CELERY_BROKER_URL = BROKER_URL
+