Contracts are in actuality tend to be based on trust. The contract probably said the payment was due when tracks were approved. If iD drags their feet on approving the tracks, then Mick is in trouble.
If the contract were instead structured payment on delivery, then iD is in trouble if Mick delivers substandard work.
Even if Marty's side of the story were 100% true (which seems doubtful), throwing a hissy-fit on Reddit basically stating "I hired a terrible person to do the music so don't blame me" is a bad look.
If iD drags their feet on approving the tracks,
then Mick is in trouble.
If the contract were instead structured payment
on delivery, then iD is in trouble if Mick delivers
substandard work.
Thank you for stating this so clearly and succinctly. There are a lot of simplistic "should have had a better contract! should have had a lawyer!" etc type comments here.
Aside from extremely trivial stuff (and maybe not even then) contracts and lawyers aren't perfect magic armor for either side.
You still need both parties to act in relatively good faith or somebody is going to be screwed over to some extent.
I might not have gotten it had I not seen it happen with (construction) contractors.
A sub-contractor did terrible work, and took out a mechanic's lien on our house nearly immediately after completion. One of their workers then assaulted my wife when she yelled at his mother (his mother apparently handled the finances and was trying to pressure my wife into signing something she didn't agree with about the quality of work).
On the other hand, mechanic's liens exist specifically for the case where the general contractor is not being timely with payment to subs; it's basically the only lever they have. In this case the lien was improper, and the AG told us we should sue if we didn't have evidence of it being lifted by EOD. I do wonder how many people just capitulate and pay for shoddy work just to make them go away.
If the contract were instead structured payment on delivery, then iD is in trouble if Mick delivers substandard work.
Even if Marty's side of the story were 100% true (which seems doubtful), throwing a hissy-fit on Reddit basically stating "I hired a terrible person to do the music so don't blame me" is a bad look.