Apple signs $3 billion deal to buy Dr. Dre's streaming music site Beats

By Christina Farr

(Reuters) - Apple Inc will buy Beats for about $3 billion and bring recording mogul Jimmy Iovine into its ranks, in a bid to make headway in the fast-growing music-subscription market.

Through the acquisition, the iPhone maker also gains a line of high-end headphones popular with a young and urban demographic.

As expected, Beats co-founders Iovine and rapper Dr. Dre will join Apple as part of the acquisition.

The deal is seen as Apple's effort to jump-start a so-far uneven attempt to make headway in music streaming, the fastest-growing segment of the market. Pandora Media Inc

and Spotify have raced ahead while Apple's eight-month-old iTunes Radio has not made much of an impact.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, Apple said on Wednesday. Shares in the company stood largely unchanged in after-hours trade.

(Reporting by Avik Das in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

[Image: The Apple logo is pictured at its flagship retail store in San Francisco, California January 27, 2014. By Robert Galbraith for Reuters]