Sales of David Bowie's final album, Blackstar, have soared after the death of the musician was announced on Monday.

43,000 physical and digital copies of the record were sold within 24 hours of his passing - that is 25,000 more than the second-highest selling album during the period.

Spotify reported that streams of the artist's music increased by 2,822% on Monday. Songs from his latest release and classics from his back catalogue have risen to the top of the service's viral charts in Ireland and around the world.

Bowie's long-term producer Tony Visconti has described the album as his "parting gift." 

The album gained a 8.3/10 rating on the music review aggregation site Any Decent Music, with The Irish Times, The Guardian, Q and NME all giving it four stars.

Details of the circumstances under which Blackstar was composed and recorded have not been revealed.

His current single 'Lazarus' has been interpreted as a parting letter by many fans - its video, which shows the artist in a hospital bed, has been viewed almost 16.6 million times on YouTube.

It begins: "Look up here, I’m in heaven / I’ve got scars that can’t be seen / I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen /Everybody knows me now / Look up here, man, I’m in danger / I’ve got nothing left to lose."

Bowie collaborator Robert Fox says that 'Lazarus' was originally conceived in the mid 00's as his take on the Walter Trevis novel, The Man Who Fell to Earth.

At one point after his death, Bowie albums made up more than half of the top 40 chart on the UK's iTunes chart.