It may not have caught the eye of international investors, but Apple's (AAPL) pending purchase of Beats Electronics could end up being a milestone deal

It may not have caught the eye of international investors, but Apple's (AAPL) pending purchase of Beats Electronics could end up being a milestone deal. The transaction will allegedly cost $3.2 billion, the largest ever acquisition for Apple. However, we're only talking about 0.6% of the company's market cap. So why should we care? Beats makes high-end headphones and offers a popular subscription-based streaming music service. It's the music service which is why I believe this is an important deal. Historically, Apple has been the leader in music distribution via digital downloads on iTunes. Yet, digital downloads decreased for the first time every last year as customers switch to streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify. With Beats, Apple's grabbing a popular streaming service to more effectively compete in that market. Digital downloads may just be going the way of the 8-track.