Spotify is giving taste makers a tool to prove their cool. A new microsite named Found Them First will recognize the first 15% of breakout artists' listeners. “After showing these artists, Spotify lets users share a playlist of their breakout artists and offers a playlist with a new batch of up-and-coming artists,” Billboard reports. 

Cord-cutters, rejoice! CNN says it plans to stream the next Republican presidential debate on September 16 for free, and without the need for any cable authentication. “The news channel is making the debate available on every platform and device it can [including] smartphone, tablet and, yes, even boring old cable TV,” Mashable reports. 

It’s hard out there for a blogger -- even Heather Armstrong, who The New York Times once dubbed, “The Queen of the Mommy Bloggers.” At least from a financial standpoint, the problem is that online business models have changed. “Like most other revenue-generating Web sites, [Armstrong’s site] Dooce for years made money on banner ads,” The Atlantic writes. Yet “People are increasingly absorbing the web through smartphones, where banner ads don’t look good.” 

Following a user backlash, Spotify is rolling out a simpler privacy policy. “The streaming service found itself amid a furor last month after its users complained about what they saw as Spotify overstepping its bounds and requesting more information on them than necessary,” The Verge reports. “For the most part, Spotify wasn't really asking for that much, but it made the mistake of writing its privacy policy in legalese.” 

Content marketing platform NewsCred has raised another $42 million, Venture Beat reports. “Based around a brand’s need to control how its story is told, the seven-year-old company is now expanding beyond its content marketplace and distribution to a more generalized marketing platform,” it reports. 

Fortune sheds light on Google Here -- the search giant’s service that never was. “Google was set to launch a new product that added context to one of its most successful apps, Google Maps,” it reports. “But earlier this year, it was shut down by Alphabet CEO Larry Page.” Why? “Google Here was potentially too invasive, and the company wasn’t sure if many retailers would want it.”