Rafael Ithier on Charlie Aponte’s counterclaim: “It’s not nice”

Musician Rafael Ithier, leader of the Great Combo of Puerto Rico, was parked in his expressions regarding the counterclaim filed Wednesday by singer Charlie Aponte in relation to the payment of royalties through a rights management system. author known as SoundExchange.

“This is in the hands of lawyers,” he told a news conference today at the Puerto Rico Tourism Company’s facilities in Old San Juan to present the group’s new album. in quarantine. “This is something that has been running for a while,” he added, revealing that he was “asleep” when he received the news.

In a separate with First Hour, the director expressed his feelings after the claim that began a few years ago, even before 2019 filed the lawsuit against Aponte.

“He’s not likeable,” he said of the singer’s decision, with whom he lived a relationship of just over four decades of work. “But everyone has their right, because definitely everyone has it,” he said, and expressed his observation that “it looks one way, but maybe that has been exaggerated a bit, the promotion, because I don’t think so. that he has therefore. He simply has a right to do that. I have a right too. Everyone has rights, so let the lawyers decide. “

In turn, Ithier revealed his interest in the litigation having a harmonious outcome.

“Lawyers will tell me what’s best, because I’m a musician. They’ll tell me what I have to do to get things settled in harmony.”

Aponte responded with a counterclaim to the musician after on March 12, Federal Judge Jay Garcia Gregory denied a motion to dismiss Ithier’s lawsuit over the payment of royalties to Aponte through SoundExchange.

In the motion filed by Aponte, the artist alleged that Ithier’s lawsuit did not present matters that provided him with jurisdiction in the Federal Court to consider the claim.

In November 2019, the director of the “University of Salsa”, represented by the graduate Roberto Sueiro de la Vall, filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court against Aponte for the claim of the payment of royalties that, according to Ithier, it does not correspond to him. The lawsuit states that Aponte was only an employee of the group, so he is not entitled to royalties from the issues. After 41 years in the group, Aponte left on December 31, 2014 to begin his career as a soloist.

It is inferred from the lawsuit that Aponte’s claim for this payment had arisen two years ago, for being the main performer of the songs recorded by El Gran Combo. However, in his lawsuit Ithier requests that he be declared the sole owner with the right to collect royalties from SoundExchange and that Aponte be declared an employee of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, without the right to collect them.

In the counterclaim filed this week, Aponte asks the Federal Court to determine that it does have the right to receive royalties from SoundExchange as a participant in the group’s recordings, for being the lead voice on more than 200 recorded songs. by The Great Combo of Puerto Rico.

He also requests that the musician pay him the royalties already charged from SoundExchange and that they have not been distributed to the musicians. Within the royalty distribution agreement, the document establishes a payment of 45% to the ” main performer ”, and 5% to the non-principal performer or ratistas appearing in that recording or sound.

Following Aponte’s claim, SoundExchange halted payments to Ithier until the case was resolved in court.