The revelation that AI bots were employed for Raye’s one-off Royal Albert Hall show has put the proposed secondary ticketing law back in the spotlight.
The Starmer government had signalled its intention to legislate to remove any mark-up on ticket resale – an effective ban on ticket touts. But the measures remain to be implemented with the industry hoping that Burnham’s government will return to the policy.
In another high-profile secondary ticketing case, Raye has revealed that the sign-up process for her Albert Hall show (October 23) was "overwhelmed" by AI bots during the sign-up process.
Raye said that there were 1.8 million sign-ups for the 5,000-capacity This Symphony May Contain Hope show.
I'm not sure what the future holds for ticketing, I do know this experience has really opened my eyes
Raye
To avoid touts exploiting the sign-up process, Raye said the sign-up list had been manually reviewed to identify a shortlist of those understood to be "real fans".
"I'm not sure what the future holds for ticketing, I do know this experience has really opened my eyes,” said Raye on social media. "Me and my team are going to think really hard about what we can do in the future."
Although the Royal Albert Hall invests in protecting ticketing systems from automated attacks, a spokesperson for the venue said that the “law needs to catch up with the scale and sophistication of the ticket touting industry”.
Music Week understands that there is a growing expectation in the live sector that the Burnham government will take action on profiteering in the secondary ticketing market.
Following Raye's announcement on touts, a spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it remained "fully committed to stamping out ticket touting for good".
PHOTO: Aliyah Otchere
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