Raye ticket sign-up hit by AI scalper bots ahead of Royal Albert Hall show
Raye's one-off Royal Albert Hall concert received roughly 1.8 million registrations for only 5,000 seats. She said the sign-up system was overwhelmed by scalpers who used AI bots to create hundreds of thousands of fake entries. Her team will manually review the list to find genuine fans before presale, while the general sale remains scheduled for October 15.
Raye's one-off London date, set for 23 October, will pair her album This Music May Contain Hope with an orchestra under the title This Symphony May Contain Hope. Registration reached about 1.8 million for roughly 5,000 seats, and her team said automated accounts generated hundreds of thousands of fraudulent entries.
To protect face-value access, the team planned to hand-review registrations, email selected fans a presale code by 11:45am, and open presale at noon. General sale was still listed for 15 October at 10am. Banquet Records also reported bots affecting larger shows and recommended account registration to help verify genuine buyers.
The episode may deepen concerns that ticket access is becoming a contest between ordinary fans and automated resellers. It could push artists and small retailers toward costly identity checks or manual screening, potentially slowing sales and excluding some less digitally confident buyers. If such measures spread, fans may face more friction, while the live-music industry could face renewed pressure to make face-value purchasing more reliable.