Making business out of music: Sara Mitaru's journey from jingles to global impact

From counting jingle money on her floor in disbelief to performing alongside Irish acclaimed singer Bono and earning an Emmy nomination, Sara Mitaru has rewritten the playbook for Kenyan musical artistes.

Her story defies the conventional "starving artiste" narrative, showing how strategic thinking, activist roots, and unwavering faith can turn 10 minutes of studio time into a blueprint on how to transcend in leaps and bounds, a musical career. 

In 2006, a fortuitous moment changed Sara Mitaru Kimanthi's life forever. As a low-level radio producer at a University of Nairobi production house, she seized an unexpected opportunity when a scheduled musician failed to show up for a commercial recording.

Offering to sing the jingle herself, Mitaru earned Sh60,000 for 10 minutes of work – a payment that left her in disbelief. "I took that money and put it on the floor in 500-shilling notes because I was in shock that you could sing and get paid," she recalls. This moment marked her first revelation about the business potential of music.

Breaking through family resistance

For Mitaru, whose parents initially opposed her musical aspirations, this financial success provided crucial validation. Her father, a university professor, mother, a civil servant, and uncle, a medical doctor, remained sceptical until she could demonstrate the tangible value of her work.

"My uncle asked me, 'How much are you paid per jingle?' I said about Sh60,000. He told me that is like what a surgeon earns for performing surgery," she says. This comparison helped her family understand that music could be more than just an artistic pursuit – it could be a viable career.

"I don't think I would have made a really good employee. I would have failed miserably," Mitaru reflects on her decision to pursue an unconventional path. "I was spontaneous, and wanted to discover what is out there in the world."

Mitaru’s early motivation came from an unusual source – pondering whether Michael Jackson ever went to bed hungry, concluding that if he could thrive through artistic pursuit, so could she. Over the next eight years, Mitaru strategically positioned herself as both producer and performer, taking control of the creative and business aspects of commercial music production.

Working with major brands like Safaricom, she established herself as a go-to voice in the industry, writing melodies for their campaigns and learning valuable lessons about the intersection of creativity and commerce. Unlike many artists who began in the mainstream music scene, Mitaru's journey started in activism.

"I wasn't in the cool kids club," she shares, noting her initial lack of access to conventional platforms like clubs and public events. This apparent limitation became her strength as she found herself naturally falling into the role of an activist musician who could articulate social messages through music.

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Valuing creative work

"My first interaction inside the studio was recognising that there was value and that you could trade on that value," Mitaru explains. This early recognition of music's intrinsic worth became the foundation of her business philosophy.

A pivotal moment came when a performance in Nairobi led to an invitation to perform at the TED Talks founder's home in New York for an investor gathering – demonstrating how value could transcend local boundaries and currencies.

Through what she describes as a "spiritually guided decision," Mitaru established new benchmarks for her worth. The market readily accepted her new rates, validating her understanding of her value.

Today, she outlines the current market rates for musicians in Kenya: Tier one artists command upwards of Sh1 million per performance, tier two artists range from Sh450,000, tier three at Sh250,000, and tier five artists between Sh50,000 to Sh60,000 .

Despite her success and proven track record, Mitaru faces a challenge common to many Kenyan artists: access to financial services. Despite handling significant amounts of money through various banking systems, artists like Mitaru struggle to access basic financial products. This institutional barrier has forced her to change banks three times in recent years, searching for one that understands the creative industry's business model.

Investment and growth

Mitaru believes in investment. "If you make money, you put it back," she explains. This means purchasing her equipment, from microphones to sound systems, while managing the inherent risks of business ownership.

Her investment strategy follows a clear rule: "If you invest one million, you must work with your investment to you 10 million." She divides it into multiple revenue streams, including live performances, content creation, and studio work, aiming to recoup 10 times the initial investment in one and a half years.

Having never made significant money from royalties or streaming, Mitaru has built a sustainable business through live performances, commercial work, and strategic partnerships. Her evolution from performer to influence-maker took a significant turn with her appointment as a United Nation (UN) ambassador for the Millennium Development Goals(MDG) and UN-Habitat messenger of truth.

One of her most successful projects involved transforming the digital representation of African cities. "If you Googled Africa at that time, you'd only see slums, Kibera. It was rundown. This was in 2008," she recalls. She mobilised photographers across the continent and leveraged her musical networks, and they successfully changed the search engine optimisation results for African cities, showcasing their vibrancy and beauty instead of just poverty.

In an industry often fixated on overnight success and viral hits, Mitaru is playing a different game entirely. She has established what she calls a "creative agency strictly for social impact," co-directed with her partner David Kimanthi. The agency is built around human-centered design principles and leverages the behavioural influence of music to create meaningful cultural change.

"To affect culture, you need people who think differently," she says. "That is something that only a creative, especially a musician would know because music affects behaviour. Some songs make you happy, some songs make you angry, and some songs make you sad. If we can manipulate or even influence how people behave using music, then we have a core understanding of human beings and why they do what they do."

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Music catalogue  

As a songwriter with over 250 compositions in her catalogue, Mitaru has only released about 30 publicly, with merely 10 recorded under her name. This selective approach to releasing aligns with her strategy of building long-term value. Her songwriting prowess led to her first Emmy nomination. "In the world of publishing, you can receive a high return on investment if you own a larger percentage of publishing, which is songwriting," she explains.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, she undertook an ambitious project of writing 100 songs in 100 days, building a portfolio that later proved valuable for her movie work."I never think of an audience when writing music. I'm moved by the honesty in the story."

Most notably, she wrote 80-90 per cent of the musical content for "Disconnect 2," one of Kenya's first Netflix films. This achievement is particularly noteworthy in an industry where the sound department has traditionally been male-dominated. "To do music for a movie, if you're doing it well, you need six months to a year. It's a year-long project."

International success and recognition

Mitaru's entry into international performances defied industry norms. In the mid-2000s, she took a leap of faith, backpacking to the UK and performing in bars. A chance encounter with former Kenyan neighbour Emmanuel Jal, a South Sudanese-Canadian artist in Bristol led to an unexpected collaboration, resulting in studio recordings with major artists including Irish artist Bono. 

Her career reached a new milestone in 2012-2013 when her work on "Jungle Love" earned an International Emmy nomination. Mitaru has performed alongside Grammy winners like Ladysmith Black Mambazo and collaborated with Stevie Wonder and Bono on a soundtrack for a George Clooney documentary about Darfur. 

She has also spearheaded significant humanitarian initiatives, including the Africans Act campaign to highlight famine in East Africa, which attracted support from major artists like Coldplay. Her performances have taken her from the African Union summit in Addis Ababa to fashion designer Donna Karan's prestigious Urban Zen in New York.

Faith, Family, and Balance

"I am not self-made," Mitaru states. Her breakthrough came through the guidance of women in the social impact space such as Wangari Kinoti who helped her understand her true market value—a revelation that led to her first million back in around 2010.

Mitaru's Christian faith guides both her music and business decisions. "I'm not a Christian in music. I'm a Christian who's a musician," she emphasises.  Mitaru's faith remains her cornerstone.

She balances her career with family life. "Show me anybody who says I'm a perfect parent and I'll show you a lie," she admits. The key, she's found, is being consistently present for the small, regular moments so that occasional absences for career obligations don't create major disruptions.

Her approach to success is what she calls "the slow burn"—a methodical building of relationships and opportunities that create lasting value.  Today, Mitaru co-owns a studio with her husband and music producer, David, who is building a sustainable business while creating jobs.

Her advice to aspiring artistes? "If you produced a banger, what value did you get out of it? Can you be able to replicate that value 10 times? If you can't, you're in trouble. If you can, then you're very well on your way to billionaire status."

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