A few months ago I booked time at a music studio in NC (I'm in TN). The plan was to do three 8-day sessions for a total of $18k. To hold the time, I sent the studio $9,000. Since the studio was a bit of a hike from me, I decided to have the first session remote.

I had been talking to the audio engineer for almost 2 years. At first it was purely professional, but eventually we developed somewhat of a friendship. Shortly before the first session, however, I hit a snag. The engineer brought up politics during one conversation, and I expressed a few of my views as politely as possible. Well, this guy did not like that, to the point of him yelling and then hanging up. The next time I talked to him, I lied and said after some research I now took his views, but the damage was done. It was clear that any friendship we had was now over, but I figured he was a professional, so the studio project would still be fine. Well, big surprise, he ignored a lot of the instructions I gave him and he kept turning things into a power struggle. After the first session I asked for $4500 back over email, and he flipped out, telling me to fuck off, go to hell, etc. He also alluded to violence against me.

Should I pursue legal action, or just let it go? Dealing with him caused me a good deal of stress, so I'm not sure it's worth it. This topic has much more detail on the situation, and some of the emails:

https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/56u98p/tn_nc_agreement_over_studio_time_violated_looking/