diff --git a/audalign/recognizers/correcognize/correcognize.py b/audalign/recognizers/correcognize/correcognize.py
index c3f98ba..bad0f24 100644
--- a/audalign/recognizers/correcognize/correcognize.py
+++ b/audalign/recognizers/correcognize/correcognize.py
@@ -336,8 +336,10 @@ def _correcognize_dir(
             **kwargs,
         )
 
-    except CouldntDecodeError:
+    except CouldntDecodeError as e:
         print(f'File "{against_file_path}" could not be decoded')
+        if config.fail_on_decode_error:
+            raise e
         return {}
 
 
diff --git a/audalign/recognizers/correcognizeSpectrogram/correcognize_spectrogram.py b/audalign/recognizers/correcognizeSpectrogram/correcognize_spectrogram.py
index 5cb5552..289ec15 100644
--- a/audalign/recognizers/correcognizeSpectrogram/correcognize_spectrogram.py
+++ b/audalign/recognizers/correcognizeSpectrogram/correcognize_spectrogram.py
@@ -336,8 +336,10 @@ def _correcognize_dir(
             **kwargs,
         )
 
-    except CouldntDecodeError:
+    except CouldntDecodeError as e:
         print(f'File "{against_file_path}" could not be decoded')
+        if config.fail_on_decode_error:
+            raise e
         return {}
 
 
diff --git a/audalign/recognizers/fingerprint/__init__.py b/audalign/recognizers/fingerprint/__init__.py
index 8f5f4e1..3adbb18 100644
--- a/audalign/recognizers/fingerprint/__init__.py
+++ b/audalign/recognizers/fingerprint/__init__.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 import pickle
 import json
 import typing
+from pydub.exceptions import CouldntDecodeError
 
 
 class FingerprintRecognizer(BaseRecognizer):
@@ -266,6 +267,8 @@ def _fingerprint_directory(
                 print("All files in directory already fingerprinted")
             else:
                 print("Directory contains 0 files or could not be found")
+                if self.config.fail_on_decode_error:
+                    raise CouldntDecodeError("Directory contains 0 files or could not be found")
             return
 
         if _file_audsegs is not None:
diff --git a/audalign/recognizers/fingerprint/fingerprinter.py b/audalign/recognizers/fingerprint/fingerprinter.py
index 4d73137..f8adfff 100644
--- a/audalign/recognizers/fingerprint/fingerprinter.py
+++ b/audalign/recognizers/fingerprint/fingerprinter.py
@@ -52,10 +52,12 @@ def _fingerprint_worker(
         except FileNotFoundError:
             print(f'"{file_path}" not found')
             return None, None
-        except (
-            CouldntDecodeError,
-            IndexError,
-        ):  # Pydub throws IndexErrors for some files on Ubuntu (json, txt, others?)
+        except CouldntDecodeError as e:
+            print(f'File "{file_name}" could not be decoded')
+            if config.fail_on_decode_error:
+                raise e
+            return None, None
+        except IndexError:  # Pydub throws IndexErrors for some files on Ubuntu (json, txt, others?)
             print(f'File "{file_name}" could not be decoded')
             return None, None
     elif type(file_path) == tuple:
diff --git a/audalign/recognizers/visrecognize/visrecognize.py b/audalign/recognizers/visrecognize/visrecognize.py
index 9d8a540..6b660dc 100644
--- a/audalign/recognizers/visrecognize/visrecognize.py
+++ b/audalign/recognizers/visrecognize/visrecognize.py
@@ -176,8 +176,10 @@ def _visrecognize_directory(
                 imgB_title=os.path.basename(file_path),
             )
         return single_file_match
-    except CouldntDecodeError:
+    except CouldntDecodeError as e:
         print(f'File "{file_path}" could not be decoded')
+        if config.fail_on_decode_error:
+            raise e
         return {}