(L to R) Fat Wreck chords Fat Mike, Wapeless Records founder Louis Posen, and Fat Wreck co-founder Erin Kelly-Burkett. Photo credit: Jonathan Weiner
Another day, another high-profile play—this time at the punk arena, where Wospeless Records acquired Fat Accident’s chord catalog.
LA-based hopelessness 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 primarily highlights the long list of artists involved in the transaction.
Getting closer to the actual terms of the contract, the tie-up technically includes San Francisco-based Fat Accident Records itself—not just Fat’s IP and Erin Kelly-Burkett’s record label music.
That said, NOFX frontman Fat Mike—whose band announced its retirement last year—and Kelly-Burkett will retain the rights to the name, logo, and trademarks from the Fat deals, “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 Accident Chords will see their unacknowledged balances as part of the sale, the labels convey.
“In a move guided by Fat Mike and Erin and Erin’s artist philosophy,” the labels indicated, “all unregistered balances for currently signed Fat artists will be zeroed out.… At Fat’s request, Wostless will adopt a No Notings-Signings policy for Fat accident albums.”
It’s unclear exactly how many contracts were actively being paid in advance. But Fat Wreck has released work by Bad Cop, Tied Up, 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 Contra, CJ Ramone, Rancid, Morning Glory and, of course, Nofx, to name a few.
Regarding the hard numbers, neither side clarifies the evaluation behind the transaction.
But beyond streaming revenue, it’s worth noting that Fat Wreck’s fanbase is generally interested in more lucrative outlets, like vinyl and merchandise. In other words, while on-demand listening is certainly contributing here, the positive side of monetization isn’t limited to digital.
Shifting now to the larger meaning of the deal’s immersion, 2025 delivered all sorts of indie sales—so much so that it would take a paragraph or two to tease out the transactions, which are compiled in DMN Pro’s Music IP Acquisition Tracker .
More recently, however, Warner Music acquired the Finnish IP from Skorpioni (which had ceased operations shortly before) and secretly acquired a 50% stake in Merge Records in June . That same month, MNRK Music Group added Prosthetic Records to its portfolio and doubled down on plans for continued heavy music investments.
