diff --git a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
index a96482e68..34eeb77c5 100755
--- a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ from .utils import (
     PostProcessingError,
     preferredencoding,
     prepend_extension,
+    register_socks_protocols,
     render_table,
     replace_extension,
     SameFileError,
@@ -361,6 +362,8 @@ class YoutubeDL(object):
         for ph in self.params.get('progress_hooks', []):
             self.add_progress_hook(ph)
 
+        register_socks_protocols()
+
     def warn_if_short_id(self, argv):
         # short YouTube ID starting with dash?
         idxs = [
diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index b2e4a2dfb..c9702fd93 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -61,6 +61,13 @@ from .socks import (
 )
 
 
+def register_socks_protocols():
+    # "Register" SOCKS protocols
+    for scheme in ('socks', 'socks4', 'socks4a', 'socks5'):
+        if scheme not in compat_urlparse.uses_netloc:
+            compat_urlparse.uses_netloc.append(scheme)
+
+
 # This is not clearly defined otherwise
 compiled_regex_type = type(re.compile(''))
 
@@ -870,6 +877,8 @@ def make_socks_conn_class(base_class, socks_proxy):
         socks_type = ProxyType.SOCKS5
     elif url_components.scheme.lower() in ('socks', 'socks4'):
         socks_type = ProxyType.SOCKS4
+    elif url_components.scheme.lower() == 'socks4a':
+        socks_type = ProxyType.SOCKS4A
 
     proxy_args = (
         socks_type,
@@ -2738,7 +2747,7 @@ class PerRequestProxyHandler(compat_urllib_request.ProxyHandler):
 
         if proxy == '__noproxy__':
             return None  # No Proxy
-        if compat_urlparse.urlparse(proxy).scheme.lower() in ('socks', 'socks4', 'socks5'):
+        if compat_urlparse.urlparse(proxy).scheme.lower() in ('socks', 'socks4', 'socks4a', 'socks5'):
             req.add_header('Ytdl-socks-proxy', proxy)
             # youtube-dl's http/https handlers do wrapping the socket with socks
             return None