I'll second all that Jed and WLD have said before me ... my songs have travelled further than I have because I was out there and singing them myself. And because when someone asks if they can sing or record one of them I say "yes" without regard to how big a name they are or are not. You never know who will be listening to what they do, any more than you never know who is in the audience when you're playing.
As to the commercial route - I can't tell you, because although I've attended some workshop/seminars run by the Industry and had superlative comments made about my songs by the Industry Suits, none of them have felt able to do anything mainstream with any of them!

Anne (Lister ...if you've heard my song "Icarus" ..or not ...)