Musician On My MacBook Won't Sync With My iPhone!

I have an artist on my MacBook Air that won't sync with my iPhone 14. Both devices are up to date. There's 209 gb's left in storage on my iPhone. Here's where it gets really weird: Out of desperation I made a big Playlist of that artist on my Mac and synced that to my iPhone. It worked. When I click Go To Album on a song in that Playlist, it goes to that album. But the artist is not visible in the Music app! Additional info: I do not have an Apple Music + subscription.