Just an aside, but it may help others who have this issue to share the solution that worked for you

Ah yeah, that is sadly true. Too much lobbying and corruption for this to work the way it’s supposed to.

Encapsulated in that “etc.” in my first response is “going out of business”. This type of response would be way too difficult to get actual numbers for, but it has worked countless times. Just look at all the businesses that are no longer in business at all, they went out of business because they were no longer earning enough to stay viable.

It doesn’t matter if the company connects the loss to a specific action (although it would be nice) since the end result is the same, after enough time.

Lastly, I just don’t like the idea of my dollars being used by a company to further an agenda that I don’t want to support.

I would argue this is actually one of the most effective ways to respond. If enough people do it then the company has to react somehow (by pivoting, etc.). Obviously an organized effort would be better, but the “vote with your money” method isn’t anything to ridicule.

Fair but, I mean, Microsoft does the exact same thing

Just an open source frontend for Shazam, but Audire is pretty nice for this

Seems like the support email is a canned response. Obviously still frustrating, but did you try clarifying with them in a response email?