(l to r) Fat Wreck Chords co-founder Fat Mike, Hopeless Records founder Louis Posen, and Fat Wreck co-founder Erin Kelly-Burkett. Photo Credit: Jonathan Weiner
Another day, another high-profile song-rights play – this time in the punk arena, where Hopeless Records has acquired the Fat Wreck Chords catalog.
LA-based Hopeless took to social media to provide an overview of the “landmark partnership” this morning, and a formal release was emailed to DMN shortly thereafter. The former source mainly highlights the long list of artists involved with the transaction.
Digging into the agreement’s actual terms, the tie-up technically includes San Francisco-headquartered Fat Wreck Chords itself – not just the Fat Mike- and Erin Kelly-Burkett-founded label’s music IP.
That said, the NOFX frontman Fat Mike – whose band announced its retirement last year – and Kelly-Burkett will retain the rights to Fat Wreck Chords’ name, logo, and trademarks, with an eye on “continuing to represent the label through festivals and pop-up shops,” the parties explained.
Another interesting component of the deal: All talent signed to Fat Wreck Chords will see their unrecouped balances zeroed out as part of the sale, the labels relayed.
“In a move guided by Fat Mike and Erin’s long held artist-first philosophy,” the labels indicated, “all unrecouped balances for currently signed FAT artists will be zeroed out. … At FAT’s request, Hopeless will adopt a no-new-signings policy for Fat Wreck Chords.”
It’s unclear exactly how many contracts were actively being paid off beforehand. But Fat Wreck has put out works from Bad Cop Bad Cop, Strung Out, The Dollheads, and Bad Astronaut in recent months.
And all told, Fat Wreck has released north of 300 projects since its 1990 founding, among them efforts from Rise Against, C.J. Ramone, Rancid, Morning Glory, and, of course, NOFX, to name a few.
Regarding hard numbers, neither side shed light on the valuation behind the transaction.
But beyond streaming revenue, it’s worth noting that Fat Wreck’s fanbase is, in general, interested in more profitable mediums such as vinyl and merch. In other words, while on-demand listening is certainly contributing here, the monetization upside isn’t confined to digital.
Shifting now to the deal’s bigger-picture significance, 2025 has delivered all manner of indie sales – so much so that it’d take a paragraph or two to rattle off the transactions, which are compiled in DMN Pro’s Music IP Acquisition Tracker.
Most recently, though, Warner Music scooped up the IP of Finland’s Skorpioni (which had ceased operating shortly beforehand), and Secretly Group execs in June bought 50% of Merge Records. That same month, MNRK Music Group added Prosthetic Records to its portfolio and doubled down on plans for continued heavy-music investments.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.