There may be another reason behind Le Mis's chart success: January is a famously accessible time for unlikely musicians to succeed. Typically, it takes just 30,000 album sales to take the top spot in the charts in January - a third of the normal total during the rest of the year. The period after Christmas can be a quiet one for new musical releases, making competition less daunting. In the past record companies have exploited this opportunity; both of Adele's albums, 19 and 21, were released in January and reached no1.