I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S10+, which has Pie our of the box. My phone didn't have any music player app preinstalled. I'm currently using Poweramp Pro, which I bought years ago when I had a Moto device. However, VLC Player and Neutron are two other music apps that also work for playing locally stored music files.
It sounds like this Samsung Music app that was preinstalled on your Note 8 is buggy in Pie, which might be the reason why newer Samsung devices no longer have it preinstalled.
I agree with @
mustang7757 to uninstall the Samsung Music app and try a different music app.