Doesn't your advice contradict the BBC's phrasing? Collectively, the band lost its spot in the top ten. And, collectively, the crew has 35 seconds to prepare the stage for the next performer.
I think this is to some extent a British English vs US English thing; it's certainly more common to treat words like crew/company/etc as plural in British English. The linked article is being overly prescriptive, though. Both are basically fine.
rsynnott|9 months ago