The music industry isn't simple. However, the quickest and simplest way to start generating income from your songs is to perform them and record them yourself. You can use the latest desktop recording systems to record your own CD and duplicate it. This makes you the songwriter-artist-manufacturer-distributor-retailer. So you don't share the profits with anyone. That means you keep the entire sale of the recording and your only costs were what you had in the manufacturing process and whatever promotional costs you had. If you perform your songs in a public venue such as a restaurant, you can make sure a performing rights organization such as ASCAP, SESAC, or BMI knows about your songs and your performances and you'll make a few pennies each time you perform them. You have to join one as both a songwriter and publisher, and register your songs with the organization. You won't become a millionaire this way unless you can develop such a large fan base that you become a local celebrity and leverage that on a national level.