Listening to paid-for music across devices???

For some reason all my paid-for music in my library is greyed out when I access iTunes from my Mac... after reviewing some forums, I learned it was due to the "Sync" option not being enabled.

THE PROBLEM - when I try to enable sync, I get an error saying "This account does not have iCloud Music enabled" - however, when I check my icloud account, I don't see any option to enable music. This message also alludes to something about Apple Music, of which I am not a subscriber.

If I'm reading between the lines here, do I really need to pay a monthly subscription just to listen to my already paid-for music across my devices? Is that what's happening here?

I used to have no issue playing my music across devices... is this a new monetization "feature" by Apple to force me into Apple Music? or am I missing something completely?

Super frustrated that I can only seem to access my library from my phone. Any help would be greatly appreciated!