In decades past, the city of Nashville, Tennessee, has been famous for its vibrant music scene. Now its leaders are singing a new note — finance. Yes, you read that right. On Wednesday AllianceBernstein, one of the largest US asset managers with $550bn under management, said it will move its headquarters out of New York, where it has been based for 50 years.

Nearly 1,000 staff, including Seth Bernstein, the chief executive, will head to Nashville. “Moving our corporate headquarters here allows us to offer advantages to our employees that we simply couldn’t in the New York metro area,” Mr Bernstein declared. He cited “a more affordable cost of living, with lower taxes and housing costs, a high quality of life?.?.?.?and a brand-new, state of the art work environment, with all the best technology and tools”, as the reasons for the 885-mile shift.

Now, a cynic might point out that this is only a partial relocation: although the asset manager’s legal, trading and sales are moving south, some 1,000 of the fund manager’s 3,500-odd employees will stay in the Big Apple to perform roles such as sellside research, private wealth management and portfolio management.