diff --git a/compressor/conf.py b/compressor/conf.py
index 7ab381b..2011531 100644
--- a/compressor/conf.py
+++ b/compressor/conf.py
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ class CompressorSettings(AppSettings):
     ROOT = None
 
     CSS_FILTERS = ['compressor.filters.css_default.CssAbsoluteFilter']
+    CSS_HASHING_METHOD = 'mtime'
+
     JS_FILTERS = ['compressor.filters.jsmin.JSMinFilter']
     PRECOMPILERS = (
         # ('text/coffeescript', 'coffee --compile --stdio'),
diff --git a/compressor/filters/__init__.py b/compressor/filters/__init__.py
index b4d80fc..96f0c87 100644
--- a/compressor/filters/__init__.py
+++ b/compressor/filters/__init__.py
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
-from compressor.filters.base import (FilterBase, CallbackOutputFilter, CompilerFilter, FilterError)
+from compressor.filters.base import (FilterBase, CallbackOutputFilter,
+                                     CompilerFilter, FilterError)
diff --git a/compressor/filters/css_default.py b/compressor/filters/css_default.py
index d5556c1..6f2ffb9 100644
--- a/compressor/filters/css_default.py
+++ b/compressor/filters/css_default.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import os
 import re
 import posixpath
 
-from compressor.cache import get_hashed_mtime
+from compressor.cache import get_hexdigest, get_hashed_mtime
 from compressor.conf import settings
 from compressor.filters import FilterBase
 from compressor.utils import staticfiles
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@ class CssAbsoluteFilter(FilterBase):
             return self.content
         self.path = basename.replace(os.sep, '/')
         self.path = self.path.lstrip('/')
-        self.mtime = get_hashed_mtime(filename)
         if self.url.startswith(('http://', 'https://')):
             self.has_scheme = True
             parts = self.url.split('/')
@@ -54,24 +53,36 @@ class CssAbsoluteFilter(FilterBase):
         filename = os.path.join(self.root, local_path.lstrip(os.sep))
         return os.path.exists(filename) and filename
 
-    def add_mtime(self, url):
+    def add_suffix(self, url):
         filename = self.guess_filename(url)
-        mtime = filename and get_hashed_mtime(filename) or self.mtime
-        if mtime is None:
+        suffix = None
+        if filename:
+            if settings.COMPRESS_CSS_HASHING_METHOD == "mtime":
+                suffix = get_hashed_mtime(filename)
+            elif settings.COMPRESS_CSS_HASHING_METHOD == "hash":
+                hash_file = open(filename)
+                try:
+                    suffix = get_hexdigest(hash_file.read(), 12)
+                finally:
+                    hash_file.close()
+            else:
+                raise FilterError('COMPRESS_CSS_HASHING_METHOD is configured '
+                                  'with an unknown method (%s).')
+        if suffix is None:
             return url
         if url.startswith(('http://', 'https://', '/')):
             if "?" in url:
-                url = "%s&%s" % (url, mtime)
+                url = "%s&%s" % (url, suffix)
             else:
-                url = "%s?%s" % (url, mtime)
+                url = "%s?%s" % (url, suffix)
         return url
 
     def url_converter(self, matchobj):
         url = matchobj.group(1)
         url = url.strip(' \'"')
         if url.startswith(('http://', 'https://', '/', 'data:')):
-            return "url('%s')" % self.add_mtime(url)
+            return "url('%s')" % self.add_suffix(url)
         full_url = posixpath.normpath('/'.join([str(self.directory_name), url]))
         if self.has_scheme:
             full_url = "%s%s" % (self.protocol, full_url)
-        return "url('%s')" % self.add_mtime(full_url)
+        return "url('%s')" % self.add_suffix(full_url)
diff --git a/docs/settings.txt b/docs/settings.txt
index 2e86863..fe1f6ae 100644
--- a/docs/settings.txt
+++ b/docs/settings.txt
@@ -70,6 +70,11 @@ Possible options are:
 
 A filter that normalizes the URLs used in ``url()`` CSS statements.
 
+- ``COMPRESS_CSS_HASHING_METHOD`` -- The method to use when calculating
+  the hash to append to processed URLs. Either ``'mtime'`` (default) or
+  ``'hash'``. Use the latter in case you're using multiple server to serve
+  your static files.
+
 ``compressor.filters.csstidy.CSSTidyFilter``
 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
 
diff --git a/tests/media/css/url/2/url2.css b/tests/media/css/url/2/url2.css
index 1114622..48e20a5 100644
--- a/tests/media/css/url/2/url2.css
+++ b/tests/media/css/url/2/url2.css
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-p { background: url('../../../images/test.png'); }
-p { background: url(../../../images/test.png); }
-p { background: url( ../../../images/test.png ); }
-p { background: url( '../../../images/test.png' ); }
+p { background: url('../../../img/add.png'); }
+p { background: url(../../../img/add.png); }
+p { background: url( ../../../img/add.png ); }
+p { background: url( '../../../img/add.png' ); }
diff --git a/tests/media/css/url/url1.css b/tests/media/css/url/url1.css
index d202a47..e77e922 100644
--- a/tests/media/css/url/url1.css
+++ b/tests/media/css/url/url1.css
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-p { background: url('../../images/test.png'); }
-p { background: url(../../images/test.png); }
-p { background: url( ../../images/test.png ); }
-p { background: url( '../../images/test.png' ); }
+p { background: url('../../img/python.png'); }
+p { background: url(../../img/python.png); }
+p { background: url( ../../img/python.png ); }
+p { background: url( '../../img/python.png' ); }
diff --git a/tests/tests/filters.py b/tests/tests/filters.py
index ee8dac0..f6cf287 100644
--- a/tests/tests/filters.py
+++ b/tests/tests/filters.py
@@ -86,62 +86,88 @@ class CssAbsolutizingTestCase(TestCase):
     def setUp(self):
         settings.COMPRESS_ENABLED = True
         settings.COMPRESS_URL = '/media/'
+        settings.COMPRESS_CSS_HASHING_METHOD = 'mtime'
         self.css = """
         <link rel="stylesheet" href="/media/css/url/url1.css" type="text/css">
         <link rel="stylesheet" href="/media/css/url/2/url2.css" type="text/css">
         """
         self.css_node = CssCompressor(self.css)
 
+    def suffix_method(self, filename):
+        return get_hashed_mtime(filename)
+
     def test_css_absolute_filter(self):
         from compressor.filters.css_default import CssAbsoluteFilter
         filename = os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'css/url/test.css')
-        content = "p { background: url('../../images/image.gif') }"
-        output = "p { background: url('%simages/image.gif?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, get_hashed_mtime(filename))
+        imagefilename = os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'img/python.png')
+        content = "p { background: url('../../img/python.png') }"
+        output = "p { background: url('%simg/python.png?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, self.suffix_method(imagefilename))
         filter = CssAbsoluteFilter(content)
         self.assertEqual(output, filter.input(filename=filename, basename='css/url/test.css'))
         settings.COMPRESS_URL = 'http://media.example.com/'
         filter = CssAbsoluteFilter(content)
         filename = os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'css/url/test.css')
-        output = "p { background: url('%simages/image.gif?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, get_hashed_mtime(filename))
+        output = "p { background: url('%simg/python.png?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, self.suffix_method(imagefilename))
         self.assertEqual(output, filter.input(filename=filename, basename='css/url/test.css'))
 
     def test_css_absolute_filter_https(self):
         from compressor.filters.css_default import CssAbsoluteFilter
         filename = os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'css/url/test.css')
-        content = "p { background: url('../../images/image.gif') }"
-        output = "p { background: url('%simages/image.gif?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, get_hashed_mtime(filename))
+        imagefilename = os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'img/python.png')
+        content = "p { background: url('../../img/python.png') }"
+        output = "p { background: url('%simg/python.png?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, self.suffix_method(imagefilename))
         filter = CssAbsoluteFilter(content)
         self.assertEqual(output, filter.input(filename=filename, basename='css/url/test.css'))
         settings.COMPRESS_URL = 'https://media.example.com/'
         filter = CssAbsoluteFilter(content)
         filename = os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'css/url/test.css')
-        output = "p { background: url('%simages/image.gif?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, get_hashed_mtime(filename))
+        output = "p { background: url('%simg/python.png?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, self.suffix_method(imagefilename))
         self.assertEqual(output, filter.input(filename=filename, basename='css/url/test.css'))
 
     def test_css_absolute_filter_relative_path(self):
         from compressor.filters.css_default import CssAbsoluteFilter
         filename = os.path.join(settings.TEST_DIR, 'whatever', '..', 'media', 'whatever/../css/url/test.css')
-        content = "p { background: url('../../images/image.gif') }"
-        output = "p { background: url('%simages/image.gif?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, get_hashed_mtime(filename))
+        imagefilename = os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'img/python.png')
+        content = "p { background: url('../../img/python.png') }"
+        output = "p { background: url('%simg/python.png?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, self.suffix_method(imagefilename))
         filter = CssAbsoluteFilter(content)
         self.assertEqual(output, filter.input(filename=filename, basename='css/url/test.css'))
         settings.COMPRESS_URL = 'https://media.example.com/'
         filter = CssAbsoluteFilter(content)
-        output = "p { background: url('%simages/image.gif?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, get_hashed_mtime(filename))
+        output = "p { background: url('%simg/python.png?%s') }" % (settings.COMPRESS_URL, self.suffix_method(imagefilename))
         self.assertEqual(output, filter.input(filename=filename, basename='css/url/test.css'))
 
     def test_css_hunks(self):
         hash_dict = {
-            'hash1': get_hashed_mtime(os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'css/url/url1.css')),
-            'hash2': get_hashed_mtime(os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'css/url/2/url2.css')),
+            'hash1': self.suffix_method(os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'img/python.png')),
+            'hash2': self.suffix_method(os.path.join(settings.COMPRESS_ROOT, 'img/add.png')),
         }
-        out = [u"p { background: url('/media/images/test.png?%(hash1)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/images/test.png?%(hash1)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/images/test.png?%(hash1)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/images/test.png?%(hash1)s'); }\n" % hash_dict,
-               u"p { background: url('/media/images/test.png?%(hash2)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/images/test.png?%(hash2)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/images/test.png?%(hash2)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/images/test.png?%(hash2)s'); }\n" % hash_dict]
+        out = [u"p { background: url('/media/img/python.png?%(hash1)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/img/python.png?%(hash1)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/img/python.png?%(hash1)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/img/python.png?%(hash1)s'); }\n" % hash_dict,
+               u"p { background: url('/media/img/add.png?%(hash2)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/img/add.png?%(hash2)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/img/add.png?%(hash2)s'); }\np { background: url('/media/img/add.png?%(hash2)s'); }\n" % hash_dict]
         hunks = [h for m, h in self.css_node.hunks()]
         self.assertEqual(out, hunks)
 
 
 
+class CssAbsolutizingTestCaseWithHash(CssAbsolutizingTestCase):
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        settings.COMPRESS_ENABLED = True
+        settings.COMPRESS_URL = '/media/'
+        settings.COMPRESS_CSS_HASHING_METHOD = 'hash'
+        self.css = """
+        <link rel="stylesheet" href="/media/css/url/url1.css" type="text/css" charset="utf-8">
+        <link rel="stylesheet" href="/media/css/url/2/url2.css" type="text/css" charset="utf-8">
+        """
+        self.css_node = CssCompressor(self.css)
+
+    def suffix_method(self, filename):
+        f = open(filename)
+        suffix = "H%s" % (get_hexdigest(f.read(), 12), )
+        f.close()
+        return suffix
+
+
 class CssDataUriTestCase(TestCase):
     def setUp(self):
         settings.COMPRESS_ENABLED = True
@@ -150,6 +176,7 @@ class CssDataUriTestCase(TestCase):
             'compressor.filters.datauri.CssDataUriFilter',
         ]
         settings.COMPRESS_URL = '/media/'
+        settings.COMPRESS_CSS_HASHING_METHOD = 'mtime'
         self.css = """
         <link rel="stylesheet" href="/media/css/datauri.css" type="text/css">
         """