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Tech Life

Can Ticketmaster 'shake off' the bots?

Tech Life

BBC

Tech News, Technology, News

4.3227 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Shiona McCallum explores what can be done about online bots targeting ticket sales. It’s after Ticketmaster apologised to Taylor Swift fans who missed out on attending her Eras tour, they say they were the target of a cyber-attack by bots. We also delve into VR and AR experiences and learn about the company in India using discarded fishing nets to produce plugs and sockets.

(IMAGE:Taylor Swift meets fans in Toronto. Wesley Lapointe / Getty)

Transcript

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0:00.0

On Radio 4, the more you listen, the more you see.

0:04.7

Hello, I'm Brian Cox.

0:05.6

And I'm Robin Ince, and this is The Infinite Monkey Cage.

0:08.3

In this series, we're going to have a planet off.

0:10.8

I feel like Jupiter wins.

0:12.8

And after all of that, we're just going to chill out a bit.

0:15.9

We're talking about your bog standard.

0:17.8

Ice, not the fancy one.

0:20.1

Science with funny bits.

0:21.9

The new series of The Infinite Monkey Cage.

0:24.1

Listen on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

0:31.2

Welcome to TechTent on the BBC World Service with me, Shona McCallum.

0:37.1

Coming up, have you ever had the excruciating wait online for concert tickets only to get

0:42.3

onto the website and find there are none left?

0:45.0

Well, we're going to delve into the world of online ticketing with a bot expert.

0:49.5

It's after Ticketmaster apologised to Taylor Swift fans about the way sales for her US tour went.

0:56.1

We're also going to hear from a virtual world creator based in Stockholm about the future of

1:01.7

VR headsets and what they could be and we'll go to India where one company is turning discarded

1:07.3

fishing nets into plugs and sockets.

1:21.1

She's got fans right around the world, including me, so I'm delighted to be talking about Taylor Swift, one of the queens of pop with so many bangers.

1:31.2

And it's no wonder that when she announced dates for her upcoming US tour, people were setting alarms and logging on to multiple devices to try and get ahead of the queues and get hold of a ticket.

1:34.9

Well, lots of us were left disappointed, unable to get them online.

...

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