Raye’s Royal Albert Hall Presale Signups ‘Overwhelmed’ By AI Bots

Presale plans for Raye’s one-off at the Royal Albert Hall have been dropped after signups were “overwhelmed” by AI bots.

There were 1.8 million signups for the show at the historic 5,000-cap venue, where Raye is scheduled to perform “This Symphony May Contain Hope” Oct. 23.

“It is a new world we are living in now,” the singer posted to Instagram. “I have never witnessed bots on this scale.”

Saying that she wants her fans to be able to purchase tickets at face value rather than relying on the secondary market, Raye said she and her team are opting for an analog solution.

“Therefore, rather than risk opening a presale that scalpers could exploit, we felt the best and safest solution for this specific show was to manually review the sign-up list to identify a shortlist of people we believe are real fans,” she said.

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.

Raye is currently opening dates for Bruno Mars. During a spring and summer headline tour, she sold out two nights at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre May 12-13, grossing a combined $832,044 on 11,785 tickets, according to Pollstar Boxoffice reports.

She’s represented by THE·TEAM.