Are You Radiohead?

Radiohead just released their new album The King of Limbs via the Web. They offered free previews for a day or two and then put the album on sale digitally via their website before it hits stores in 2 months. I missed the free previews and being the cheap bastard that I am, I was more than willing to wait until May when it would be available on MOG, the awesome music on-demand service, so I could save $10.

But this weekend, that feeling that the new Radiohead album had been out for days and I had not heard it started to gnaw at my soul. I like Music. The harder it is to play at weddings, the better. Nobody is strolling down the aisle to Everything In Its Right Place. Nobody is doing a two-step line to Kharma Police. Nobody is Radiohead.

Except Radiohead.

The download went off without a hitch. I am currently being absorbed into the track Codex. Wow.

A couple of days ago Google launched the Farmer Update to cleanse their results of spammy, low-value content. A lot of sites got hit, some obliterated. It’s appropriate that I am listening to Give Up The Ghost as I type. This will not have been a fun weekend for many CEO’s, employees, investors and families.  It probably has not been a relaxing weekend for many SEOs.

But even the greatest SEO in the world (who wants the anchor text?) is no substitute for a great product. Like Fred Wilson says, amazing products market themselves. So while you are digging out from the rubble, ask yourself, “Am I Radiohead?” “Have I made something that a customer can’t wait to buy regardless of what Google does?”

Are you Radiohead?

Update: Funny, I came across this post by Michael Gray an hour after I wrote this Why SEO Can’t Be Your Only Value Add. +1