Great, thanks for the kind words! :) I've been working on the project for almost 3 years, so it hasn't been a quick hack by any means. I came from a front-end background and have had to learn the whole stack.
I make a small amount of commission through traffic I send to Apple and Amazon. ATM this just about covers my costs. I'm hoping with scale will come some partnership opportunities and I'm also working on a Pro offering (songwhip.com/pro).
I haven't had any issues from Spotify API yet. I've had days where it's been slammed pretty hard. YouTube has the most strict quotas, but you can apply to have them increased which I've done several times.
1. Yes I'm planning on releasing Songwhip Pro (https://songwhip.com/pro) which will be a customizable version of the free product targeted at artists, labels and marketers. It'll allow an artist name to be 'claimed' unlocking write access and pro-only features.
2. I don't have the bandwidth to take on playlist functionality at this time. I'm trying to focus the offering and really nail the original problem before taking on new challenges. I've seen competitors try to spread themselves too thin and end up not doing anything exceptionally.
https://songwhip.com/pro