Music Validation Tool FAQs


This page contains Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and answers related to the self-service Music Validation Tool (MVT) for the Alexa Voice Service (AVS). Before contacting Amazon Developer support, read through this page and see if your question is answered here.

General FAQs

Q: Why are Pandora and Spotify certification not supported by the MVT?

A: Spotify and Pandora certification are primarily UX-based certifications. Because the majority of MVT tests confirm front-end behavior, the log validation component of the MVT does not have an automated way to confirm via API validation that device supporting Pandora or Spotify will pass certification.

API validation FAQs

  1. Q: How does the MVT account for long utterances or Text-to-speech (TTS)?

    A: The MVT calculates an acceptable offset range. See Offset validation.

  2. Q: What is the expected offset for time range validation?

    A: See Offset validation. The value in parentheses shows the closest acceptable boundary (before applying lenience). In other words, if offset is too low, the value represents the lower bound, and upper bound if offset is too high.

  3. Q: How does the MVT handle PlaybackPaused and PlaybackResumed?

    A: The MVT calculates an acceptable offset range. See Offset validation.

  4. Q: Why is my device failing test runs because the offset is too low? I followed the certification guidelines. What could be wrong?

    A: Does your device have User-Perceived Latency (UPL) that is greater than one second for spoken audio recognition? If yes, then the offset failure may be due to the high latency, which you will need to decrease to meet musical functional requirements. Other causes could be device limitations or an unstable test environment. Please ensure that you have a stable test environment and a well-performing device before beginning certification testing.

  5. Q: Does the MVT handle PlaybackError and PlaybackStutter?

    A: Although the MVT treats PlaybackError as a valid event, your device should not be throwing this error if it is ready for certification. Additionally, if a PlaybackStutter occurs, you might see a incorrect offset flagged. Ideally, however, neither PlaybackError or PlaybackStutter events should occur during a certification run.

MVT Support and troubleshooting

  1. Q: How do I contact AVS support for help with the MVT?

    A: Please submit a support request through the Contact Amazon form.

  2. Q: I think there might be an error with the validation for my device. Can I have Amazon double-check my results?

    A: Please submit a support request through the Contact Amazon form.

  3. What documentation is available for helping us to understand the AudioPlayer Interface ?

    A: See AudioPlayer Interface.

  4. Q: How can I reproduce an issue with my device?

    A: To reproduce an issue, start with the closest play utterance to the step where the issue happened. If you cannot reproduce the issue, please try re-running the full checklist.

  5. Q: Can you review our firmware code change and provide us with suggestions?

    A: Amazon does not provide firmware code change reviews or suggestions.

  6. Q: Why is no utterance data available for the tests that I just completed?

    A: Make sure that you are using the same developer account for testing as you are using for MVT and that your test/developer account has been whitelisted. Contact Amazon if you need to have your account whitelisted. You will need to re-test if your previous tests were done on a non-whitelisted account. If you are using the correct account and have the account whitelisted, also check and make sure that the timezone for Start and Stop is correct.

  7. Q: When I input my test data, I do not see any results. What's wrong?

    A: You might have entered device or test information incorrectly. Confirm that the Device Serial Number, start time, and end time are correct

  8. Q: I just finished testing using a certification checklist that I have used in the past, but the coverage validator is suddenly failing. What could be going on?

    A: You may be using an outdated version of the checklist. Please download the checklist again to ensure that you have the latest version:


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Last updated: Nov 27, 2023