Digital DJ equipment does offer some significant benefits: music files can be stored in enormous quantities on a computer or hard drive. Records are bulky, heavy and fragile, making them difficult to move around. Planning sets leaves little real room for improvisation; if a record has been omitted it can't be part of a mix, but you can fit an entire music library on a PC.

There can be literally thousands of tracks in one collection, and yet music management software means that DJs only need a snippet of information to search their database and locate the right file. To find the right vinyl, you have to crouch down and physically root through the records.

Travelling becomes much easier for DJs mixing digital files. Successful DJs perform at nightclubs all over the world, and need their music to travel with them. Whereas vinyl had to be flown in the holds of planes, leaving it vulnerable to theft, damage or delay, Digital DJs can keep their DJ equipment and music in their sight at all times.

Yet another advantage of digital DJ equipment is the ease and speed with which the latest music can be found and downloaded. No more trawling through record shop shelves or waiting for deliveries: digital files can be bought and accessed instantly, with just a laptop and an internet connection.

Tracks once purchased can be saved a multiple copies, protecting a DJ from losing them in addition to allowing simultaneous playback of the same song on two decks. Vinyl DJs can only achieve this if they possess two copies of the same track. As with so many cultural debates, vinyl and digital DJing each has its die-hard fans, meaning that the rather subjective question of which method is better is unlikely to be answered any time soon.