Related videos:
The drummer and composer Giraldo Piloto, leader of the group Klimax, publicly denounced that Cuban state record companies have systematically defrauded musicians and producers for decades, directly pointing to the ACDAM (Cuban Agency for Musical Copyright) and the Editora Musical de Cuba.
"With much indignation, I received recent and verified information about the brazenness with which Cuban record companies have been deceiving us for years," wrote Piloto in a post titled The Pseudo Cultural Support: Cases and Matters from Home.
The trigger was immediate and clear: when trying to upload Klimax's songs to online music platforms, access to their own productions was denied.
"Everything reignited when I tried to upload a couple of Klimax songs to the music platforms everyone is following these days, from music productions which the contracts in my possession imply a state acknowledgement of my undisputed ownership of those works," the musician explained.
The pilot clarified that his conflicts with these entities are not new; they date back to the 1990s.
After more than a decade of "awkward and endless meetings," he succeeded in getting ACDAM—acting as an instrument of the Ministry of Culture—to acknowledge that he was right, which allowed him to collect "hundreds of thousands of Cuban pesos and tens of thousands of the now-defunct CUC."
However, the musician warned that this compensation was not everything he was entitled to claim, and the discovery of new evidence prompted him to make his complaint public now.
In the comments on his post, Piloto was even more direct: "In Cuba, it is very difficult to tell when you are being deceived, and coincidentally yesterday I was told that I could not upload MY SONGS."
In response to those who questioned the timing of his complaint, he replied straightforwardly: "If someone broke into your house today, wouldn't you report it?"
The musician stated that he has enough documentation to support his claims and indicated that the full details will be included in the two books he is in the process of finalizing.
"I have more than enough evidence, and that will eventually be known," he warned.
Piloto urged companies to take responsibility beyond their personal case: "I then urge companies to correct the wrongdoing and to make amends for the mistake they have formalized for years, not only for me but for all the producers or composers who have trusted you."
The complaint is not an isolated case in the Cuban music scene.
In July 2023, musician Papucho publicly denounced that EGREM was deducting 4% from his gross income for copyright fees when performing his own songs in venues operated by the same state entity, without receiving a formal response from the Institute of Music.
Giraldo Piloto, who has been residing in Miami since 2025, is a central figure in Cuban music: he founded NG La Banda in 1988, was the director of Issac Delgado's orchestra from 1992 to 1994, and created Klimax in 1995.
He also directed the Fiesta del Tambor Festival for over 20 years, which he stated was the main —and for a long time the only— promoter of Afro-Cuban culture when state institutions were ignoring genres such as rumba, Yoruba traditions, pilón, mozambique, and Abakuá culture.
"Simply put, rights must be respected, something that has not happened in Cuba for many years. It's disappointing," the musician concluded.
Filed under: