When I first started making music several years ago I used a service called Music Kickup; they're based in Helsinki, Finland and I am based in California, US. They take music I send them, put it on streaming platforms (spotify, apple music, etc.), and when I make money from people streaming me, those streaming services send the royalties to music kickup, then music kickup pays me. The whole "paying me" part is what's getting hung up here. They have not paid me since fall of 2016. You can look at my payment report portal here, accessed at the time of posting this. Section 4 of Music Kickup's licensing agreement says this about payments, I am considered the licensor here:
Music KickUp shall provide the Licensor with a report of the sale of the Licensor’s Recordings via Music KickUp Distribution Service and of the accrued royalties. Music KickUp shall post the report to the Licensor’s Music KickUp Account within a reasonable time from Music KickUp’s receipt of such reports from the Distributors.
Royalties and other related income accrued from the digital distribution of the Licensor’s Recordings and received by Music KickUp from the Distributors (hereinafter referred to as “Royalties”) shall be credited to the Licensor’s Music KickUp Account within ninety (90) days from the receipt of such Royalties by Music KickUp. For avoidance of doubt, only Royalties actually received by Music KickUp from Distributors shall be credited to the Licensor’s Music KickUp Account. Music KickUp shall not be responsible for any delay or neglect of payment by Distributors or other third parties.
You can read the rest of their legal documentation here. I'm also entirely certain this is not a delay on behalf of third parties. Spotify, Apple Music, have always been quick to pass my royalties on to other distributors I've used before. I've emailed Music Kickup several times and have either been told that they're fixing it and my payments "will be available soon" (they never are) or they will just flat out stop responding. According to my math they owe me about $5,000 as of today.
I'm fairly confident what they're doing is in breach of the licensing agreement but I have no idea where to start. What can or should I do?
