To celebrate the Lunar New Year, ESEA Music has laid out its plans for the year ahead.
The community-led, non-profit organisation's three key goals for 2025 are:
1) To advance ESEA representation in the UK Music Industry:
To advance greater representation of ESEA professionals across the UK music industry, surpassing the diversity benchmark outlined in the 2024 UK Music Diversity Report. The focus will be twofold: first, better ESEA representation within industry trade bodies and the BRITs Voting Academy; and second, increasing participation of ESEA professionals on music industry panels.
2) To uplift British ESEA talent:
To continue uplifting ESEA individuals in the UK music industry by expanding the Sesame mentorship programme through dedicated workshops which help support career pathways for ESEA artists and professionals. Additionally, through the ESEA Sounds writing camp releases and showcase, ESEA Music aims to create collaborative opportunities for artists, producers and songwriters, offering exposure for ESEA talent.
3) To ensure organisational sustainability:
To ensure the long-term sustainability of ESEA Music as a non-profit organisation by focusing on fundraising efforts and establishing a solid governance structure to guide the organisation's growth and future direction.
In 2024, ESEA Music was recognised as a distinct ethnicity category in The UK Music Diversity Report, showing that ESEA individuals make up 3.20% of the industry. In December, the BRITS voting academy also announced its 2025 diversity analysis, revealing ESEA representation had been recorded for the first time following inclusive adjustments to how ethnicity data was captured.
The BRITs data showed that 1% of the Voting Academy identifies as ESEA, whilst overall, 26% of voting academy members identify as being from a Black, Asian, or ethnic minority – up from 24% in 2024 – with 69% identifying as white.
In partnership with Beatport, ESEA Music’s mentorship team will be delivering three workshops on production, songwriting and royalties, and marketing and PR in 2025.
Now in its third year, ESEA Sounds 2025, funded by Arts Council England and Downtown Publishing set out to run writing camps with high profile mentors and has confirmed multiple Grammy and BRIT-nominated artist and producer Jax Jones as a producer for this year’s programme. The initiative will also include single releases, showcasing the creativity of British ESEA talent.
“It acknowledges the significance of East and South East Asian representation,” said Tiger Hagino Reid, ESEA Music’s co-founder. “Historically, the 'Asian' category in the UK mainly represented the South Asian community. This development allows us to gauge the impact of our efforts in ESEA Music and provides data on the behind-the-scenes contributions of ESEA individuals for the first time. A milestone for ESEA Music that marks a significant move towards enhanced representation and visibility in the UK music industry."
