1.8 million sign-ups for 5,000 seats: AI bots swamp Raye's concert
An orchestral show by the British singer at the Royal Albert Hall drew almost two million registrations – including hundreds of thousands of fake ones from ticket touts.
Archive image · Photo: Raph_PH / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
British singer Raye is fighting ticket touts: her show 'This Symphony May Contain Hope' at London's Royal Albert Hall on October 23, where she reimagines her album 'This Music May Contain Hope' with an orchestra, received 1.8 million sign-ups for 5,000 seats, Raye wrote, according to NME. Scalpers used AI bots to create 'hundreds of thousands of fake registrations'.
Her team therefore checked the list by hand to filter out real fans. Selected fans received a presale code by email on October 13; remaining tickets are expected to go on general sale on Thursday, October 15, at 10am UK time. It is very important to her that fans can buy tickets at face value, Raye said.
London record shop Banquet Records also says bots are increasingly targeting its bigger shows, NME reports. In Britain, a legal price cap on ticket resales has been under discussion for some time.