UK South Asian Music Press: Who Covers It | TAP
South Asian music press in the UK
By TAP Editorial Team
Quick answer
The UK has a small South Asian music press circuit: Eastern Eye as a British Asian weekly newspaper, DESIblitz online, and BritAsia TV across television, radio and podcast, plus writers and channels publishing independently. Coverage is worth having but it is not where most of this audience finds records, so plan around radio, video and live dates and treat press as an addition.
There is not much South Asian music press in the UK, and knowing that in advance saves you a fortnight. A handful of outlets cover this music properly, mainstream music media covers it occasionally and unpredictably, and the audience is mostly reached through radio, video and rooms rather than through reviews. This guide covers who is actually publishing, how to find out what they have covered recently, and how to write to a person rather than to a masthead.
The honest size of it
If you come to this from a general music PR guide, you will have been told to build a list of forty outlets and work through it in tiers. That list does not exist for this music. What exists is a small number of publications, a smaller number of writers, and a much larger audience that finds records somewhere other than a review page. That is not a reason to skip press. A piece in the right place is worth having, it lasts, and it gives you something to put in front of a radio producer later. It is a reason not to build your release plan on it. The practical version: spend a couple of hours getting the press approach right, spend the rest of the time on radio, on video, and on the people booking rooms. If you spend six weeks chasing coverage that was never going to come, you will have missed the window where a station could still have used the record.
Tip: Before you write to anybody, open their site and find the last three music pieces they published. If you cannot find any from this year, they are not covering music now, whatever an older article says.
Eastern Eye
Eastern Eye is a British Asian weekly newspaper published in the UK, running since the late 1980s, with entertainment and culture sections alongside its news coverage. It is the closest thing this music has to a paper of record. Because it is a weekly with print deadlines, it works on longer notice than an online outlet. Give it real lead time and give it something that would still be interesting to a reader who has never heard of you: a story, an occasion, a person. A release date on its own is not a story anywhere, and it is definitely not a story in a newspaper. The usual mistake is pitching it like a music blog. It is a newspaper with a broad readership, so the question its desk is asking is what makes this worth space, not whether your record is good.
Tip: Read a full week of their entertainment coverage before you decide what to pitch. It will tell you in twenty minutes what kind of story they run, which is more than any guide can.
DESIblitz
DESIblitz is a British Asian online magazine with a standing music section, publishing across music, film, culture and lifestyle. Being online-first, it moves faster than print and covers newer artists more often. That makes it the most realistic first target for an independent release, and it also means the competition for attention is a volume problem rather than a prestige one. What gets through is specificity: a clear record, a clear reason it exists now, and images that can be used without being asked for twice. Send a short email with everything attached or linked, rather than a two-stage pitch that asks whether they would like more information. On a fast-moving site, the piece gets written by whoever made it easiest.
Tip: Have a square image and a wide image ready before you pitch anything online. Missing artwork is the most common reason a piece that was going to run does not.
BritAsia TV
BritAsia TV is a British Asian music and entertainment channel with television, radio, podcast and chart output, and its site carries a submissions route of its own. That combination matters: it is one of the few places where a single approach can reach video, audio and a chart at the same time. Use the route they publish rather than looking for a side door. Channels with a stated submissions process usually mean it, and going around it is both slower and worse for you. As with everything else on this page, check what they are currently running before you send. Output changes, strands end, and a pitch aimed at something that finished last year answers itself.
Tip: If an outlet publishes a submissions route, use exactly that route and follow exactly what it asks for. It is the one part of this process where the instructions are written down.
Everything else, and how to find it
Beyond those, coverage of this music lives in places that do not look like press: YouTube channels with large followings, podcasts hosted by people the audience already trusts, community radio, and writers publishing on their own sites and newsletters. Several of these reach more of your actual audience than a national outlet would. The way to find them is not a list somebody else made. It is to work backwards from records like yours. Take three artists making something adjacent to what you make, search their last release, and write down every place that covered it. Do that three times and you have a list that is current, specific to your music, and better than anything you could have been handed. Mainstream UK music media does cover British Asian artists, but unpredictably and usually when there is a story that would have run anyway. Treat it as something that may happen rather than something to plan around.
Tip: Build the list once, keep it, and add to it every release. By your third record it is an asset, and rebuilding it from scratch each time is the single biggest waste of effort in independent promotion.
Writing to a person rather than a masthead
Editorial teams here are small and often cover several areas each, so the person you want is usually findable and usually busy. Find the name on recent music coverage and write to them. Keep it short. What the record is, what language it is in, who produced it, when it is out, one link that plays instantly, and one sentence that is only true of your record. If you cannot write that sentence, the pitch is not ready, and no amount of length will fix it. Be accurate about what you have made. Describing a Punjabi rap record as South Asian music, or a Bengali record as Asian, tells a specialist desk that you are describing yourself from the outside. Name the language, name the form, and let them do the categorising.
Tip: One follow-up, seven days later, in the same thread, and then stop. In a circuit this small a second chase costs you the contact for the next record, and the next record matters more.
When something does land
Share it the day it appears and credit the writer by name, not just the publication. It takes ten seconds and it is noticed, because most people do not do it. Then use it. A piece in a real outlet is the strongest line you have for the next email to a radio producer, and it stays useful for months after the traffic from it has gone. Put it in your own notes with the date and the link so you are not searching for it later. And keep the relationship going past the campaign. Writers here cover this music because they care about it, and the artist who is still in touch six months later, with nothing to ask for, is the one who gets a reply to the next release.
Key takeaways
- The South Asian music press circuit in the UK is small. Plan around radio, video and live, and treat coverage as a useful addition rather than the spine of a release.
- Eastern Eye is a weekly British Asian newspaper and needs a story rather than a release date. DESIblitz is online, faster, and the most realistic first target for an independent record.
- BritAsia TV covers music across television, radio, podcast and a chart, and publishes its own submissions route. Use exactly the route an outlet publishes.
- Build your own list by working backwards from three artists making music adjacent to yours and noting everywhere their last release was covered.
- Write to a named writer, not a masthead. Name the language and the form of your record precisely, keep it short, and follow up once after seven days.
Pro tips
1. Check every outlet is still publishing music coverage this year before you pitch it. Several titles that older guides still recommend have stopped covering music or stopped publishing, and a pitch to a dead desk is a fortnight you do not get back.
2. Have images ready before the first email: one square, one wide, both high resolution, both recent. Missing artwork is the most common reason a piece that was going to run quietly does not.
3. Pitch a story rather than a release wherever the outlet is a newspaper. The desk is deciding what deserves space against everything else that week, and a record coming out is not by itself an answer to that question.
4. Credit the writer by name when you share coverage. Almost nobody does, it costs nothing, and it is remembered by the small number of people who cover this music.
5. Keep press and radio on the same timeline. Coverage that lands after the record has stopped moving is worth a fraction of coverage that lands in the same fortnight a station is still playing it.
Frequently asked questions
How much notice does a weekly newspaper need?
More than an online outlet, because print deadlines are fixed and a week's pages fill up before the week starts. Give it several weeks rather than several days, and give it something that would interest a reader who has not heard of you. If you are inside a fortnight of release, pitch online outlets instead and accept that print has gone for this record.
Should I pitch several outlets at once?
Yes, that is normal for a release announcement, as long as nobody has been offered an exclusive. If an outlet does offer you a premiere or an exclusive interview, honour it completely, including the timing, because breaking that is one of the few things that gets you permanently ignored in a circuit this size.
Is mainstream music press worth chasing for a British Asian release?
Only when there is a story a mainstream outlet would have run anyway. It does happen, and when it does it is usually because of something specific rather than because a record is good. Chasing it speculatively costs weeks you could have spent on radio and on the rooms where your audience already is.
What do I do if nobody covers it?
Nothing dramatic. Coverage is one route and it is not the one that reaches most of this audience. Keep the radio and live work going, keep the list of who you contacted, and come back to those same people with the next record. Writers notice consistency far more than they notice a single good release.
How do I describe my music to a writer who may not know the form?
Plainly and specifically. Name the language, name the form, name the producer, and give one comparison that is honest rather than flattering. A specialist desk will already know the reference. A mainstream desk will be glad of it. Either way it is more useful than a paragraph that avoids saying what the record is.
From the field
Proof points
- Named contact reply rate vs studio@: 5x higher (Liberty Music PR campaign data, 2024-2026)
- Best UK send window: Tue/Wed 09:00-10:00 UK (Across 60+ campaigns)
- Optimal follow-up cadence: +7 days from initial pitch (Liberty internal data)
- Reply visibility blind spot: Stations add to rotation without replying (WARM monitoring vs email reply rate)
What actually happened
Eyes Glued, BBC Radio 6 Music: 153 plays across 6 weeks, accelerating in week 4. Track-led pitch with a single playable line. (March 2025)
Asian Network rewards specificity about the artist's diaspora, not the genre tag. I name the language, the community, and the show fit in the first line. Generic South Asian framing dies in the inbox. The producers are tighter-knit than most stations and a bad pitch closes the door for the next campaign. Send less, send right.
Chris Schofield, Radio plugger, Liberty Music PR
Related resources
Further reading
- TAP Blog — In-depth guides, comparisons and advice for independent artists running their own promotion.
- UK Music — The voice of the UK music industry, representing labels, publishers, and collecting societies.
- Music Week — Industry news, charts, and analysis for music professionals.
- The Music Network — Global music business intelligence and networking.
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