madjo

It’s primarily used for audiobooks. Those need to be stored somewhere.
The podcast feature of Audiobookshelf uses the same structure, so the server downloads the file and the client can then find it and either download it to your local device or stream it from your server.

If you don’t want that, I wouldn’t use Audiobookshelf as an intermediary tool. I’d use Pocket Casts, or antennapod or some such.

I’d much rather choose the book I want to listen to by clicking on the book’s cover than look for it on one of my many harddrives

Bandcamp isn’t what it used to be, apparently there’s a better service for music now, I’m sorry I can’t recall the name.

artcore? https://www.artcore.com/

or formaviva? https://formaviva.com/

(though I still like bandcamp)

Add some redundancy to it.

Find a way to copy my iCloud files to Nextcloud.

Rest in peace!