Shared iTunes playlist — song stops playing

I bought a different copy of "I Don't Hurt Anymore" from the Apple Music store and substituted it in my shared playlist for the first copy of that song that I had in there ... and the anomaly disappeared! The "Time Changes Everything" track, which I did not replace, plays all the way through now without a hitch. Then the new version of "I Don't Hurt Anymore" plays all the way through without a hitch. So the first version I had of "I Don't Hurt Anymore" was the culprit. I can't say what exactly was wrong with it that made it cause a problem not only with itself but with the previous song in the playlist. The problem showed up only in the context of being played in a shared playlist, but not in the context of being played in the original playlist in iTunes. Go figure!

If there is a maximum playlist length involved, I don’t think it would let me play songs that come after "Time Changes Everything" and "I Don’t Hurt Anymore," but I can indeed play the songs that come later in the shared playlist. I am going to do some experimenting because I can’t believe the problem with the first of those two songs isn’t related to the fact that the "t" after the apostrophe in the second song title is missing in the title as it appears in the shared playlist ... but not in the song title that appears In iTunes. I note that earlier in the playlist I have "Don't Be Cruel," and the "t" does indeed appear after the apostrophe.. That song plays correctly, as do the prior song and the following song. There seems to be something weird about the title of "I Don’t Hurt Anymore" as it is being fetched from the iCloud library or wherever. The apostrophe-t may not be entered there correctly, or there is a non-printing character embedded in the title, or something like that. Whatever the nature of the problem, I think it gets triggered while "Time Changes Everything" is still playing. That song stops playing somewhere in the playback of the word "vain," but not always at the same exact moment. It’s like the anticipatory buffering halts due to the anomaly in the "I Don't Hurt Anymore" title.

So true! I realize Apple has its reasons, but I don’t really understand why iTunes the app on Mac computers, Windows computers, and maybe Linux computers had to get replaced by (Apple) Music the app. My own iMac can’t run the new Music app — my iMac is too old. So iTunes still exists for it and for Windows machines. Every user of a newer MacOS computer presumably uses the new Music app. Meanwhile, the Music app is also used on my pretty darn old iPad running iOS 14.4. And the Music app runs on my iPhone that is so old it can’t be upgraded beyond iOS 10.3.3. And don’t get me started on the methodology used by the iCloud music library, which I have never completely understood.