When Women Lifers: Pennsylvania’s Women Serving Life Without Parole was released by Real Stories as Dying Out Loud, it went on to win the Royal Television Society (RTS) Award for Best Short Form Documentary and has since been viewed more than one million times on YouTube.
Resonant Music Licensing provided music supervision and licensing services for the film.
The film
Dying Out Loud gives extraordinary access to a group of women in a US maximum-security prison, all serving life without parole in Pennsylvania — a sentence that means the whole of a person’s natural life, with no possibility of release. The documentary explores the human stories behind that sentence, the justice system that created it, and the difficult question of whether it is just.
It is a powerful, sensitive piece of filmmaking. The judges of the Royal Television Society award described it as a “captivating, intimate and poignant piece” — recognition of the care and craft that went into every aspect of its production, including the music.
The music challenge
In a documentary of this nature, music has to earn its place carefully. It cannot be intrusive or generic. It cannot manipulate. It has to sit alongside the real stories of real people — supporting the emotional weight of what is being said without ever overwhelming the voices on screen.
That is one of the more demanding briefs in music supervision. The music has to be present enough to shape the atmosphere, and restrained enough to remain invisible.
Resonant’s contribution
The soundtrack was drawn from Resonant’s catalogue of pre-cleared music from independent artists and composers. Working from the production brief, Resonant compiled bespoke playlists of music suited to the tone, story and audience of the film. The editor then selected the tracks that shaped the final soundtrack — all pre-cleared, all aligned with the brief, and all licensed through Resonant Music Licensing.
This is central to what Resonant does: understanding the context, the story and the audience, and curating music that fits — saving productions significant time and effort without compromising on quality or creative fit.
The tracks credited to Resonant Music Licensing in the film’s end titles are:
- Nights With No Name — Raphaëlle Thibaut
- A Song She Heard — Raphaëlle Thibaut
- What’s Going On — Jon Brooks
- Don’t Close Your Eyes — Jon Brooks
- Formulating The Plan — Jon Brooks
- Disturbia — Jamie Salisbury
Three artists. Six tracks. All sourced, licensed and supervised through Resonant, and all credited on screen.
Raphaëlle Thibaut, Jon Brooks and Jamie Salisbury are independent composers and musicians whose work brought depth and authenticity to some of the film’s most emotionally significant moments. We are grateful for their contribution and proud to have placed their music in a production of this quality.
The result was a soundtrack that served the story without drawing attention to itself — which, in music supervision, is often the measure of work done well.
The outcome
Following its release, Dying Out Loud won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Short Form Documentary. The Royal Television Society is one of the most respected broadcast industry bodies in the United Kingdom, with a history stretching back to 1927. An RTS Award is a serious industry accolade — one that reflects the quality of every creative decision that contributed to the finished film.
The documentary has since passed one million views on YouTube, reaching an audience far beyond the festival and broadcast circuit.
For the artists whose music featured in the film, it is a meaningful example of how independent music can play a genuine role in award-winning, widely seen productions.
For Resonant, it is a reminder of why careful music supervision matters — and what it can contribute to powerful storytelling.
About Resonant Music Licensing
Resonant Music Licensing provides music supervision, sync licensing, rights clearance and pre-cleared music solutions for film, television, documentary, advertising and digital media.
Founded by Music Supervisor Giles Gale, Resonant works with a global network of independent artists, composers and rights holders to connect productions with music that supports story, emotion and audience engagement. Whether a project requires pre-cleared catalogue music, represented catalogue or bespoke compositions, Resonant provides experienced supervision alongside every licence.
If you are working on a project and would like to discuss music supervision or licensing, we would be glad to hear from you.