Regarding your #3 - "3. Pick a publishing company (Tunecore, CDBaby, others)"

I would call those "distribution sites". Of the points you listed, it is the one that will matter most to you - because it is where people will find your music and where you will get paid - unless you have your music in a library (which you will need to go down that path yourself to try to get them placed - it is not hard) OR you have your songs published by legitimate Publishers (which is VERY hard and an option that very few people will ever experience).

I recommend CDBaby (others might recommend sites they have used). For a small fee ($49 last I knew), you can upload an album (or CD - whatever you want to call it) and THEY will distribute it to all of the streaming services. They put it on iTunes and Amazon for sale. And THEN they track all of the activity. And pay you if that activity amounts to anything - which it can if you get downloads for an album. The streaming end of things is so very small, it takes HUGE amounts to add up to pennies. (I have pages and pages of streams that do not add up to enough to trigger a payment - but it is cool to see that your songs are being streamed all over the world). Janice & Bud get enough streams and downloads that they get payments now and again...

Create an album and upload it to CDBaby. And then see what happens. It's the best learning experience for that side of things.

You can also try some of the songs sites - like Songtradr - though as far as I know, no one (from here) has made any money there...


Your other 3 points hardly matter in today's music world.
I won't bother with the explanations of why - most people need to find that out for themselves... (you would actually need to a song on the radio or a major release record for that to matter)

150+ Songs produced using BIAB RealTracks
And 50 more...
and some more...