If the question is whether they should pay them, I agree they should. This is obviously an attempt to make more money.
But the question is whether this is comparable to theft. I think your reference to piracy, which you abruptly dropped, shows you agree with me. If piracy isn’t theft, when that is taking their content involuntarily without compensation, and then certainly providing you voluntarily providing your content understanding you won’t get compensated isn’t theft. So is privacy theft?
Also, comparing it to the mob shaking you down for money makes no sense. You don’t voluntarily enter into that agreement. With Spotify, you can either view the exposure as a good thing for you, and leave it and make no money from it, or you can view it as wrong to you and remove it, and make no money from it. Either way the outcome is the same for you, and it’s your choice what to do. For the mob, you either have to pay them money, move, or be harassed (or worse). I can’t fathom why this was brought up as an example to prove the point.
I don’t consider “internet piracy” as stealing because it is copying. In an age where it is easy for anyone to copy then the expectation to have a temporary monopoly on distribution, as if it were a physical good, is unintelligible.
The point is “voluntarily” is more nuanced than merely people agreeing to it. I consider people free to choose when Spotify would get laughed at every single time. Instead it’s sometimes an offer you can’t refuse, either out of desperation or because they are ignorant of how they are being exploited.
