Hearts, along with reputation (rep) points can be thought of as the “currency” of thesixtyone.

Unlike reputation, however, they are not accumulated. Any hearts awarded in a day must be spent within that day, or they will be lost when a daily Roll Over occurs.

TIP: A logged in listener can delay the resetting of hearts by not visiting the home page, as this is what seems to trigger daily updates (including the daily assignment of new quests). In this way, hearts can be spent before they are lost.

Hearts are applied to a song by a listener as a method of “voting up” that song. Beginning at level 5, a number of hearts equal to the listener's level can be applied to a song. Applying the maximum number of hearts to a song (often called “max hearting”), results in the infamous Holy Shit! popup. Additional hearts can be given to a song, even if it has been max hearted, after the listener has attained higher levels. Note that a song can only be max hearted once, so additional hearts given using this method will not result in additional max-hearts.

Hearting a song indicates to an artist, and other listeners, that you like the song! If a song earns enough hearts, it may rise to the frontpage. In addition, any hearts given to a song you have already hearted result in reputation(rep) points for you! Hearting, and max-hearting songs are also a requirement for many quests and achievements.

Hearts are awarded to a listener in one of three ways:

Each day, at Roll Over, a number of hearts based on the listener's level is awarded. The basic formula is 9 + the listener's current level.

The completion of quests usually results in the awarding of hearts.

Listening to a song on The Rack will sometimes earn a bonus heart. Explanation needed

Being the first listener to give a heart to a song results in a “discovery” of that song. This can be done for free once every 24 hours, with successive “first hearting” requiring the listener to spend reputation(rep) points. Besides bragging rights, discovering a song results in additional reputation earned when others give hearts to the song, and is a requirement for some quests and achievements.

Discovering a song is often referred to by the acronyms FH (for “first heart”) or FB (for “first blood”, after the sound/popup that occurs when a discovery is registered).