Thanks for asking this question. These replies are so much more helpful in understanding the basic premise than anything I've come across.

Thank you for the thorough response. After looking carefully at what you wrote I didn't really see a difference between the term self-hosting and home network.

You said you have software that automatically downloads media. The way I see this using movies for instance, if I own the movies and have them on my machine, then I can stream them over my network and have full control. Whereas if I "own" them on Amazon and steam it from there, they can track the viewing experience, push ads, or even remove the content completely. I understand that.. But if I want a NEW movie, I'm back to Amazon to get it in the first place (or Netflix, or Walmart, etc. I get it). I'm fact, personally I've started actually buying disks of the movies/music I like most so that it can't really be taken away and I can enjoy it even without an Internet connection. Am I missing something? Unless of course the media you are downloading is pirated.

I know I'm asking what seems to be a huge question but I'm really only asking for a broad description, sort of an ELI5 thing.