It’s that time of year again. Whether you like it or not, the festive spirit will be following you from your local grocery store, to the mall and on your drive home, in the form of Christmas music.

Some of you love it. And some of you would much prefer a silent night (month? months?).

So why is Christmas music creeping earlier and earlier into the month of November? Why does every artist seem to be releasing a holiday album, that’s seemingly all covers? What’s the business behind the onslaught of Christmas music and albums?

Guest:

Randy Lewis, pop music writer for the LA Times; this is his 24th year compiling the Times’ holiday music round-up; he tweets @RandyLewis2