Managing a Breakup

Today’s update is targeted towards group managers. Although, If you are a group or a member of a group for that matter, it would be in your best interested to continue reading as well. Hopefully this will provide you with some insight into cliché self-destructive behaviors that most group/band members dabble in at one point or another during their career. For the love of all that is good, I hope you won’t. But chances are you will.

Today’s topic is breakups. How can you as a manager survive when your most profitable and possibly only group is breaking up? How do you continue to put food on the table when your income is dependant on people who no longer care to continue producing a revenue stream?

Step 1

Avoid the disaster.

You need to be prepared from the day you sign the group to play therapist. Your job as a manager might feel like more of a job as a marriage counselor than anything else. If you see it that way, you’ve got a strong grip on reality so don’t lose it yet. I’ll tell you later when the appropriate time to lose it is. Start off by NOT taking sides. Make it clear that your job is to do what’s best for the group as a whole. Try to help everyone feel important, even if they aren’t. Help them see why they entered into this partnership to begin with. Do whatever you can to reignite the excitement they felt playing together in the first place. If they really don’t want to play together anymore, remind them that they still need each other to produce income for themselves. Remind them that there are no grantees, especially with solo careers, and that staying together is what’s best for everyone income. If you fail in your attempt to avoid the disaster, proceed to step 2.

Step 2

Follow the money.

If the group is split between the lead singer/songwriter and the lead guitarist on one side and the bass player and drummer on the other side then your choice is obvious. Nine times out of ten go with who writes the songs. Whoever brings the most revenue producing talent to the table should be your focus. It doesn’t matter who you like better. It matters who can put food on your table. Groups come and go, but money will always be a necessity. If you did your job and had the group make a legal agreement with one another in the beginning, then the rest of the work is cut out for you through the breakup. Hopefully the star of the group that your siding with has the rights to the groups name. That way you won’t have to develop a new brand. It will be the same brand with a couple of different faces. Groups hire and fire members all of the time long after they’ve reached success. Nothing wrong there as long as the group doesn’t suddenly decide that YOUR to blame for their problems with each other. If that’s the case proceed to step three.

Step 3

Lose it.

Just kidding. Step three is to cushion the fall.

You are going to have to do a lot of talking and apologizing for things that aren’t actually your fault in this situation. However, once any group of people has chosen a scapegoat, it’s very hard to convince them that they are actually the ones to blame. If the fault is yours then take responsibility. But, most likely it won’t be and there won’t be much you can do other than explain everything you’ve done to help their career and hope that they are rational enough to see it. If they aren’t, well then that’s why you have a sunset clause in your contract. You do have a contract right?