Music stops playing randomly on Macbook Pro

Hey folks

Is anyone else having trouble with Music on MacOS randomly stopping playing when streaming to a HomePod Mini?

Specifically, I am playing locally ripped music on my MacBook Pro to a HomePod Mini, using AirPlay (I don't have an Apple Music subscription - I'd rather buy CDs from the bands directly so they get a fair share). But as per the question, it seems to be randomly stopping, needing me to press <play> to restart it. Or worse still, it stops playing but the progress bar keeps moving forward.

Cheers for any ideas/suggestions. This is getting really annoying.

System details:

Music vsn 1.3.5.8

MacOS Ventura 13.4.1

MacBook Pro M1 Max