99.2
An independent digital radio dedicated to contemporary Brazilian music.
99.2 is an independent product created within Bloco Studio. From concept to launch, I was responsible for turning the idea of a digital radio dedicated to Brazilian music into a live web product.
I owned the creation of 99.2 end to end, from the initial product concept through development and launch. Built independently within Bloco Studio, it became the studio's first product to be released and made publicly available.
99.2 started from a behavior I repeatedly observed beyond the screen. While attending festivals and live shows, people around me would often ask which Brazilian artists they should discover and which local acts were worth seeing. I saw an opportunity to turn an informal form of curation into a continuous discovery experience. In February 2026, I started building 99.2 within Bloco Studio as an independent product connecting artists, genres and scenes from across Brazil.
How could music curation become a discovery experience that represented Brazil without reducing the country to a single genre, region or moment? The challenge went beyond putting songs into a sequence. The programming needed an identity of its own, capable of moving across regions, generations and listening moments throughout the day while keeping the experience simple for anyone who just wanted to press play and discover something new.
The starting point was a recurring behavior I had observed: people interested in music and festivals would turn to me for recommendations on Brazilian artists to discover. This observation led me to explore an experience that did not rely solely on genres or isolated playlists. Programming began to consider territory, generation, cultural context and different listening moments throughout the day.
The solution was to structure 99.2 as a 24-hour digital radio where programming, identity and experience work together as a single discovery system. The schedule follows different listening contexts throughout the day. Mornings begin with lighter new Brazilian music, moving into trends and discovery during the day, grooves and Brazilian classics toward the evening, and rap, urban music and Brazilian electronic sounds at night. After midnight, Tropical Hits takes over with viral tracks and music circulating across digital culture. To give this system a distinct personality, I created archetypes connected to individual shows, generations and regions of Brazil. Programming can also adapt to cultural moments across the country, including São João and the Festival of Parintins.
- ✓ Contextual 24/7 Programming
- ✓ National and Regional Curation
- ✓ Archetypes as Product
- ✓ Culturally Adaptive Programming
A visual system for many ways of listening to Brazil
99.2's identity needed to accommodate different genres, regions and generations while remaining recognizable as a single brand. I built a modular visual language around color, typography, graphic shapes, archetypes and recurring elements from the radio experience. The six characters extend this system. Each is connected to a region of Brazil and part of the programming, helping turn schedules and editorial concepts into recognizable identities. This architecture allows 99.2 to shift its mood throughout the day and respond to different cultural contexts without rebuilding its identity whenever the programming changes.
After going live in April 2026, 99.2 began reaching listeners beyond the context in which it was created. Between May 22 and June 21, AzuraCast data recorded 456 unique listeners, 1,025 listening hours and audiences across more than 25 countries, with an average listening time of 2h15 per listener. These early results indicated that an independent approach to Brazilian music curation could generate extended listening sessions and reach an international audience.
