Music you already paid for (not subscription) is no longer available on my Mac because I decided to no longer pay for a subscription that is no longer needed?

So, I finally figured it out mostly on my own but I do want to thank everyone who chimed in. So, as I thought and had previously told the Apple Support Tech the music I was referring to that I was having an issue with was in fact purchased without a subscription. I made it very clear that the music I subscribe to was also not available but that wasn't my reason asking for help from Apple.

Apparently, in an attempt to fully explain my issue to the tech they only focused on the word Apple Music, ignoring all of the other information I had included. I guess in these days being detailed in explaining anything is lost on a lot of people. But, then when I attempted to break it down further that even what I thought a 10 year old could understand it was still lost. All they wanted to was point me to articles about not being able to listen to or access any of my music without a subscription.

So, further digging I saw a post in another form on here with basically the same issue I had just posted. And as I had said the person responding like you guys here also had agreed that music purchased through iTunes prior to Apple Music subscription should still be available and of course it would be wise to back up those files. Which I did being a long time owner of a Mac since 1991 I had all my ducks in a row, just could not figure out why when I clicked on a song it would not play and only the warning that I was no longer a subscriber would pop up.

To answer Lettermanian's question yes i had those files backup on my external drive the new Mac saw those files on the external drive as I use it for all of my media files - which reminds me, I was in fact able to play my movies that I have purchased just not the music. The read-write permissions were fine and no issues there. The only difference was I moved from an Intel iMac to an M1 iMac. same accounts, same Apple ID and went through the process of Authorizing the new iMac which in turn reported that I had already authorized it previously. So, I knew it was something else causing the Music app to refuse to play songs I had previously purchased.

Since none of the suggestions the Apple Support Rep worked and the fact they kept insisting that I had to have a subscription that clearly told me the Rep either didn't know what they were referring to or didn't understand my issue at all. Funny, as soon as I cut and pasted the article from this community did the Rep suddenly understand what I was saying. (SMH)

In the end, pointing the Music.app on my new iMac to the location of my library on my external drive did nothing it just sat there while I grew more upset. So, I opened my media folder while I had the Music.app open and just selected each album folder and dragged them to the Music.app screen and bam! Just like that all of my paid for album were available and played with no issue. It was pretty fast. I double checked my internal SSD to make sure I didn't accidentally copy all of my music back onto it, which I don't want since the external is much bigger drive.

So, with all of that B.S. I had to deal with Apple Support. with the help of you all I was able to figure out how to get the files to play like they did before I subscribed to Apple Music. I in no way wanted to have to redownload thousands of singles and albums again. I am glad I waked away and look at it with a fresher view.

Again, thanks folks - I think I will stick with you all instead of trying to get Apple Support to help sad because the days when I worked for them it seem Apple went out of their way to help you now days I guess its much easier to just throw articles at the customer and hoping one will stick. Thats what I get for buy Apple Care+ for my new iMac UGH LOL