Ning, the social network for people who want to make social networks, announced a partnership with management firm The Collective, guaranteeing new pages and endorsements from big artists ranging from Avenged Sevenfold and Staind to Enrique Iglesias and John Leguizamo.

From the music business perspective, Tech Crunch contributes to an ongoing debate: is it worth trying to make people sign up for a whole new social network just for your artist instead of easily following them on an already-existing platform?

[Ning SVP of Business Jason] Rosenthal also says that while many celebrities maintain presences across multiple sites, they tend to use Ning as their central hub, with their other profiles serving as satellite ’spokes’ linking back to their [Ning-based] social networks. This isn’t surprising given the increased level of control a celebrity has over their Ning network, than say, a Facebook page. But celebrities won’t be dropping the other services any time soon – a Ning network may offer a richer experience, but casual fans are more likely to subscribe to a celebrity’s Twitter feed or Facebook page than they are to join an entirely new social network.

Full disclosure: Metal Insider was previously run as BITPOM, a Ning-based site. Obviously, you can tell what we decided made sense for us. Seems all y’all lovely readers prefer this cleaner, blog-style site and casually follow our Facebook and Twitter profiles instead. Whatever works!