Athenaeum

Athenaeum

An audiobook server that provides a podcast feed.

Basics

This server will create a podcast feed from a collection of .m4b audiobooks and server that podcast feed on a selected port. A config file (by default located at ~/.athenaeum/config.yaml) can be used to customize the server.

For example, a minimal config file would look like:

Host: https://athenaeum.testserver.net
Media:
  Root: ~/audiobooks

This tells the server where it is hosted, and where the root for the .m4b audiobooks is. To set up the host, a reverse proxy is recommended. Nginx is standard, but for simple home use I would recommend Caddy.

The above config file would produce a podcast feed at https://athenaeum.testserver.net/podcast/feed.rss, which can then be added to your favourite podcast player. I use Overcast.

Audiobook Media Layout

The layout of the audiobooks in the root media folder is quite flexible, but the following format is recommended:

$MEDIA_ROOT/Author/Audiobook/Audiobook.m4b

To detect a .m4b audiobook, a corresponding .toml file must exist in the same directory and with the same name as the audiobook file. This file provides metadata for Athenaeum to use when constructing a podcast feed. For example, if A Wizard of Earthsea.m4b exists in the media root, then A Wizard of Earthsea.toml must exist in the same directory for Athenaeum to discover it and serve it in the podcast feed.

The following an example of the format for a .toml metadata file:

Title = "A Wizard of Earthsea"
Authors = ["Ursula K. Le Guin"]
ReleaseDate = 1968-11-01
Genres = ["Children's", "Fantasy"]
Narrators = ["Kobna Holdbrook-Smith"]

[Description]
Text = "<p>Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth.</p><p>Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.</p>"
Format = "HTML"

[Series]
Sequence = "1"
Title = "Earthsea"

The only required fields are Title, Authors and ReleaseDate.

Installation

Via Homebrew:

brew tap CallumKerson/homebrew-tap/athenaeum
brew install athenaeum
brew services start CallumKerson/homebrew-tap/athenaeum

To upgrade:

brew update && brew upgrade athenaeum

DRM-Free M4B Audiobooks

Athenaeum only works on DRM-free .m4b audiobooks, and should only be used for private use of personally purchased audiobooks.

To buy audiobooks that are compatible with Athenaeum, I would recommend https://libro.fm, which can be used internationally. According to their documentation http://downpour.com also provides DRM-free .m4b audiobooks, though it requires a US credit card.

Note on test audiobooks

Any *.m4b files found in this repo are short public domain sound clips with metadata that pretend to be audiobooks for testing purposes only.