wordpress has new media support now since wp 4.0, audio and video are no longer hidden behind a flash wrapper, these are presented via html5 audio video elements with flash fallback.
I haven't read new policies but monetization is optional, and one can release music whenever they wish, with contentID I believe an artist gets to exert control over his music youtube-wide, auto-identification of music, the one with links to itunes content that youtube lists.