Apple Music Not playing (progress bar not moving speakers connected and selected)

This is more of an answer than question - Perhaps it will help others. I recently subscribed to Apple Music to replace iTunes and then changed my laptop for a new one (Lenovo ThinkPad P14s - not that the hardware matters, or should). Despite all other apps (Windows Media Player, Skype, Teams, What'sApp, YouTube, etc playing music or voice through my connected Bluetooth speakers (a Bose and a WonderBoom) for some reason AppleMusic, when selecting music from either my Music Library on my PC or from the offerings on Apple Music online, the pressing of 'Play' did nothing. The progress bar remained at 0.0.. So NOT due to speakers not being connected the AppleMusic app just would not play. I reinstalled AppleMusic a few days ago, no change. I did so again today and again, no change.

I have no AV or Firewall other than the Windows 11 standard. But I disabled the Firewall. Tried Apple Music again and hey presto! music played from my Apple Music player. I turned the Firewall back on - and everything still played as it should. I've spent time on the phone to an equally puzzled Apple Support guy. He was fairly sure (after we'd exhausted pretty much anything we could think of and he'd consulted colleagues) it had to be a hardware issue (I couldn't see that being the case - it made no sense as the other apps worked when playing audio, the speakers both work fine etc) - but I said I'd try another install of the App and then tried closing the firewall temporarily.

Hope this helps others who may find the same - I am a 45 year Road warrior so not exactly a klutz with supporting myself, but this was the latest and I hope the LAST painful experience of changing PCs. I have the Support staff at Microsoft, Apple, Lenovo, OKI, Epson and others on speed dial after the past month - I didn't transfer my old PC content and settings as I wanted an entirely new setup clean in all aspects of the OS and files and programs - but it's been a month of pure ****. Practically nothing has been straightforward. Why software companies change things that weren't broken (Windows 11 moving from Windows 10 for example) when adding new features I just don't understand.

[Edited by Moderator]