Hello fellow musicians, RYMND here.. hope y'all are having a good day. I am needing some advice.

So, I hired my good friend (we toured together many times, and had been in several bands in the past) last year to get me produce a song (mainly just take the chords and beats and make them something he’d vibe with). I really like the stuff he was writing for other artists, so naturally I hit him up, and we started talking about some ideas. I don’t want to say exactly how much I paid him, but for me, it was a significant amount of money. We agreed that a turnaround time of 4-8 weeks was fair, because I told him I had many projects coming and wanted to get a start on my solo project soon (this was around March/ April).

Well, it’s been about 6-7 months since he was supposed to get the files to me, and I’m a little concerned. Last I heard from him was about 3 months ago, saying he was going to send the files over, and that he had them on a separate hard drive. He’s since left me on read, and I haven’t been able to contact him. (I messaged him to get an update probably every 4-6 weeks, so I wouldn’t be ‘that guy’ and super annoying). I get as producers/ songwriters, we get super busy especially with COVID, which is why I always understood delays. Really, just any kind of communication from him would be appreciated. I want to be respectful and professional, but I also do want my product.

Any advice on what I should do?