The way it works in France is that money goes to a company that collects it on behalf of all copyright holders. Its website does not offer any documentation as to how copyright holders can claim their share.

It operates sort of like a guild. For music, there's the SACEM, where songwriters, musicians, etc. register themselves (hey I have this thing), and get help (e.g. SACEM invests in young aspiring music professionals) and royalties based on how their music was used and by whom. All music users pay SACEM for the use, and SACEM distributes the proceeds to the copyright holders.