New reports suggest that Apple are looking to buy the music identifying giant Shazam in a $400 million deal.

TechCrunch has revealed from “sources” that Apple are in the final stages of acquiring Shazam. As Apple try to edge their way into the lead for music streaming, the song recognition giant Shazam could give them the edge they need.

According to TechCrunch’s ‘sources’ the deal was being signed last week and is due to be announced sometime today. Although one source says the deal will be in the 9-figure area others have said it will be around $400 million, significantly lower than Shazam’s last $1.02 billion valuation. That was in 2015 and the company has only gone from strength to strength since then.

If true this would be a major move for Apple and their most significant purchase in music tech, perhaps since Beats. Shazam reported passing 1 billion app downloads all the way back in September 2016. Despite their popularity Shazam have still struggled to make a profit with last years loss of £4 million an improvement on 2015’s £16.6 million loss.

Shazam’s CEO did note earlier this year that the powerful brand and software that they’ve built would make sense as an acquisition target. When speaking to Business Insider, CEO Rich Riley did suggest it be acquired by a “big company looking for a foothold in music or advertising”. Riley did also mention their “flexibility to build to a standalone IPO”.

Shazam currently integrates multiple music stores and services in their apps to allow listeners to go straight from ID’ing a song to saving it in their library. If the rumours are true then Apple may end up with a monopoly over people’s discovery of music.