I am trying to to play music on my local that I have previously encoded to the Music App as m4a file.
Previously I was getting message about adding to queue but queue was never playing?
The only music I can play is the free U2 album when I sign into my Apple Account.
Music is findable from the Music app. e.g. right click and select show in finder.
Was working fine last week.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 15.7
Just had a similar experience. When trying to play music in Apple's music app nothing happened.
Solution was to locate music (right click > show in finder) then drag music to music app, at which point all tracks play as expected.
After signing out and dragging existing music file to Music App, music app started working again and playing local hosted music.
.m4a files have the capability of DRM, Digital Rights Management.
Those files may only be played with registered players. Or - if the Provider requires an re-enablement of the permission to play this file at this player.
You did point to the correct answer - "when I sign into my Apple Account.", this enables the playback here.
If you get .m4a files from somewhere different, they may not be able to playback before their original owner re-enable the permission to play this file at this player.
This may happen also if you change your Apple Account for the iTunes Store oder unregister your device.
Music app not playing local M4A files
