1.8 million people signed up for a presale with just 5,000 seats. That would be a dream scenario for most artists, except RAYE says a huge share of those registrations were fake, created by AI bots working for scalpers. Her response, and the questions it raises, are worth a close look for any artist who sells tickets, whatever the size of the room.
What happened
RAYE, a British artist, says scalpers used AI bots to create “hundreds of thousands of fake registrations” for the presale of her upcoming one-off show at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The presale had received 1.8 million sign-ups for just 5,000 seats.
To stop scalpers exploiting the presale, RAYE’s team chose to “manually review the sign-up list” and shortlist “people we believe are real fans.”
Those selected received a presale link and code by email, with presale opening at 12pm. Anyone who did not receive a code was able to buy through general sale once remaining tickets went live.
The scale of the problem
The Royal Albert Hall said it regularly takes measures to combat bots and scalpers, once blocking 38 million bot requests in a 24-hour period.
“Despite these measures, we regularly see tickets advertised at vastly inflated prices. Fans deserve to see the artists they love without being exploited by ticket touts,” the venue said.
Even with one of the world’s most established concert venues investing heavily in bot prevention, the problem was not solved. The bots in this case operated at the registration stage, before any ticketing platform was even involved, flooding a fan sign-up page rather than a checkout queue.
RAYE said she was “not sure what the future holds for ticketing” and that “me and my team are going to think really hard about what we can do in the future.”
What this means for artists selling shows
This is not a problem exclusive to artists playing 5,000-seat venues. The same bot infrastructure that hit RAYE’s presale is available to scalpers at any scale, and fan registration pages, mailing list sign-ups, and even social media giveaway entries can all be targets.
A few practical considerations:
If you run a presale through your own mailing list or a sign-up page, think about whether you have any way to verify that the people registering are real fans.
Even basic friction, like requiring a previous purchase or a verified email from a specific domain, can reduce automated sign-up volume.
Build a direct relationship with your audience through platforms and channels you control. It is one of the strongest defences available, because it gives you a pre-existing picture of who your real fans actually are before a presale ever opens.
Where Musosoup fits in
Musosoup’s model of connecting artists directly with verified music media contacts is part of that same logic: the more of your fanbase development that happens through traceable, genuine interactions, the less vulnerable you are when automated systems start gaming your outreach.
The bottom line
The incident is also a pointed reminder that ticket scalping is not an abstract industry problem. For fans on limited budgets, and for artists who genuinely care about who is in the room on the night, the gap between face value and resale price is a real barrier.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Stay updated with the latest Muso news, tips, and success stories. Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss an update!
