In a move that could drastically change the face of audio hardware, Apple is planning to purchase Beats Electronics for a reported sum of $3.2 billion. While nothing about the sale has been officially confirmed, the move would put Apple in an advantageous position in both the headphone market and the music streaming market.

Since launching in 2012, Beats has brought in over $500 million in revenue thanks to their ubiquitous, high-level sound quality headphones and speakers. It would be a vast improvement over Apple’s current sound hardware, which Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine claimed was the lone missing piece in their musical empire at the time of Beats’ launch. It would certainly mark an improvement over the oft-lambasted iPod earbud, which many audiophiles have criticized for being tinny and of poor quality.

The deal would also give Apple its own music streaming interface. Beats Music, which launched earlier this year, acts as a direct competitor to services such as Spotify and Rhapsody in what is quickly becoming the big market in music.

Neither Apple nor Beats have made any official comment on the story, but we can expect a response from either side in the coming weeks.