Luke Combs. Photo: Jim Wright

Luke Combs reclaims the pinnacle of this week’s Country Albums chart, as This One’s For You moves 26K in total consumption, according to Nielsen Soundscan. Aaron Lewis is this week’s top debut, as State I’m In debuts at No. 2 with 23K. Dan + Shay‘s self-titled album is at No. 3 with 15.5K, followed by last week’s chart-topper, Brooks & Dunn‘s Reboot, which falls to No. 4 this week, with 13K. Kacey Musgraves‘ Golden Hour is at No. 5 with 13K.

This week’s Top 5 Country Digital Songs Chart extends Combs’ reign at the top of the rankings, with “Beautiful Crazy” at No. 1 with 11.6 million streams. Chris Stapleton‘s “Tennessee Whiskey” is at No. 2 with 7.6 million streams. Following his performance at this month’s Academy of Country Music Awards, Blake Shelton‘s “God’s Country” increases 58 percent, rising to No. 3 with 7.3 million streams. Dan + Shay’s “Tequila” is at No. 4 with 7.2 million streams. Kane Brown‘s “Heaven” is at No. 5, with 7 million streams.

Ross Copperman. Photo: Taylor Kelly

Singer, songwriter and producer Ross Copperman has released two new tracks, including “Stars Are On Your Side,” and “We Should Plant A Tree.”

“Stars Are On Your Side” was penned with Kevin Bard and Brian Fallon and was recently featured on Spotify’s New Music Friday segment and on the April 18 episode of ABC show Grey’s Anatomy. “We Should Plant a Tree,” was recently released in honor of Earth Day (April 22) and was co-written by Copperman, Josh Osborne and Shane McAnally.

Copperman recently earned an ACM for Music Event of the Year as producer for the Dierks Bentley and Brothers Osborne collaboration “Burning Man.” He was also nominated twice in the Album of the Year category at last year’s CMA Awards, for his work on Keith Urban’s Graffiti U and Dierks Bentley’s The Mountain.

SiriusXM is expanding its subscription choices with the introduction of the new, low-cost Essential streaming-only plan. The new plan makes it easier and more affordable than ever for those who don’t have a car or don’t use one very much to enjoy the advantages of SiriusXM with no car required. The Essential plan features more than 300 channels and is priced at $1 for the first three months, then $8 per month thereafter.

Listeners who subscribe to the Essential plan will have several options for listening to SiriusXM, including on their smartphones and tablets via the SiriusXM app, via the SiriusXM.com web player, and on connected devices in the home including devices with Amazon Alexa, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Roku, Apple TV, smart TVs, Sonos speakers, Xbox, Sony PlayStation, and more. Subscribers will get SiriusXM’s full lineup of music programming, featuring 200+ channels of expertly curated, commercial-free music channels from virtually every genre.

“The strength of SiriusXM’s programming is evident in the tens of millions of people who subscribe and listen in their cars year after year. We’ve now created the Essential subscription as an appealing option for the many people, particularly younger consumers, who don’t have a car or don’t spend a lot of time in their car,” said Matt Epstein, Vice President of Marketing, SiriusXM Outside the Car. “On SiriusXM, listeners will find more innovative formats and expertly-curated commercial-free music channels, live performances, plus a very deep lineup of news, entertainment, comedy and sports talk. The Essential plan offers an attractive bundle of content at a competitively low price among streaming services.  Also, and this is extremely important, our streaming subscribers get access to all of this content in the kind of user-friendly, ‘lean back’ way that makes it easier to find the music or shows that they like best.”

Today approximately two-thirds of people in the U.S. (ages 12+) stream their audio entertainment, according to Edison Research. 

Maren Morris performs at Coachella 2019. Photo: Maren Morris/Twitter

Though Kacey Musgraves was the only country artist with an official performance slot at this year’s Coachella, Maren Morris surprised festival-goers with an appearance during DJ Zedd’s set on Sunday evening (April 21) to perform their massive hit “The Middle.”

“First time here,” Morris wrote on Twitter, and also shared photos from her performance. “Thank you @zedd for such a badass time. #Coachella”

“The Middle” released in February 2018 as a collaboration from Morris, Zedd, and duo Grey. The track has been certified 3x Platinum by the RIAA, and earned numerous nominations from the Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, Teen Choice Awards and more. The track earned Song of the Year and Dance Song of the Year honors at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Chrissy Metz singing “I’m Standing With You” at the 2019 Academy of Country Music Awards. Photo: Facebook/Chrissy Metz

Chrissy Metz, star of 20th Century Fox’s Breakthrough, has released her first ever music video for “I’m Standing With You.” The original song written by 10-time Oscar nominated songwriter Diane Warren, is featured in the film and the accompanying soundtrack.

Also featured on the soundtrack are original music and recordings from Adam Hambrick, Carrie Underwood, Chrissy Metz, Darius Rucker, Jukebox the Ghost, Lauren Alaina, Maddie & Tae, Mickey Guyton, Phil Wickham, Pigeon John, and Taylor Mosby plus special featured guests Kirk Franklin and Lecrae.

Metz recently performed “I’m Standing With You” alongside Carrie Underwood, Lauren Alaina, Maddie & Tae & Mickey Guyton at the 54^th Academy of Country Music Awards.